This is me now...

Yuletide Adventures

2011-12-17T20:19:00.002-05:00

Picking out a Christmas tree is serious business for Kevin and I. If you remember, last year we scaled the hillside surrounding our volunteer house in Kentucky to find just the right tree. (If you need a refresher on that gem of a tale, just click here!) This year since we are not living in the mountains of Kentucky, we decided it was probably not in our best interest to cut down a tree we spotted on the side of the highway. People tend to frown on that sort of behavior in the real world.

So a couple weeks ago, Kevin and I decided to go to the Star Tree Farm to find the perfect tree for my first Christmas in Michigan. Star Tree Farm is a cute farm located just about halfway between my apartment and Kev's house and has three different types of trees to choose from on their 40 acre farm. Luckily, we did not have to peruse all 40 acres to find our tree. Although I thought Kevin might try to at one point in the adventure. I believe his exact words were 'I like to look at all of them before I make a decision'. Thank goodness, he did not follow through on that threat.

After some perusal, we did find the perfect pine tree for my apartment and I got the honors of chopping, well really sawing, it down. For a minute, it was almost like being back in Kentucky cutting up firewood for Randis and Linda with Kate minus the fact that I still had feeling in my fingers and toes on this day. After I felled our tree, Kevin got it loaded up on our wagon and wheeled it to the Shake and Wrap Stations. They had this machine that you stuck the trunk of the tree down in and then it vibrated all the snow and loose needles off your tree before they wrapped it up. I was completely fascinated by it to say the least. I've been told that we have these thing-a-ma-bobs in Rhode Island, but I must have missed it when we were at Stop 'n Chop last year because this was a first for me.

Kevin Working & Me Supervising

After we got our pine all trussed up, we had some delicious (and free!) hot chocolate before we headed back to the apartment to set up the tree. I'm going to be honest, I let Kevin take the lead on setting up the tree in the stand. I designated myself official picture taker and played paparazzi while he did all the work.

The Finished Project

After we (really just Kevin) got the tree locked in the stand, it was time for lights. I am a firm believer in white lights only on a Christmas tree; the multi-colored lights come across as super tacky to me and now that I have my own place and my own tree I can gladly do away with them. After the lights, it was time for my ornaments which my dear mother was kind enough to send me all the way from Rhode Island. I know it was hard for her to part with them, but it was nice to have them and all the memories they hold here with me during my first Christmas season away from home.

Homemade Gift Tags

A first for me this year is the experience of trying to buy, wrap, and mail out Christmas gifts in time for them to get to their recipients by December 25th. The most time consuming part of this process for me was the wrapping of the presents as I decided this year to get a little creative. I used a combination of buttons, fabric, brown packaging paper and raffia ribbon to wrap every one's gifts. I only hope they make it to Rhode Island looking as cute as they did when I put them in their box today.

Proof of the Cuteness

This morning I was able to finish everything up and head on down to the post office to send my presents and my love to my family. Unfortunately, half the town of Mason had the same schedule as I did so I was stuck in a pretty lengthy line before I was able to hand over the packages to the poor frazzled postal office workers. I think I was one of their easier customers though; I am not exaggerating when I say there was a man behind me in line with at least 10 to maybe 15 medium sized boxes all ready to be shipped out for the holidays. I would hate to even think how much he spent on postage.

Day 1001

2011-11-27T20:10:00.001-05:00

I cannot believe that I have finally reached Day 1001. In some ways, it seems like forever ago and in others I can't even begin to comprehend how that much time has passed. I went back to my original blog post on my 101 list and I realized that there had been a couple changes to the list since that day. Over the past 1001 days I have changed a lot and along the way I adjusted some of the goals accordingly, but I'm going to go through my 101 tasks and update you on the status of all them based on the most recent list which I have been going off for a good seventy-five percent of this journey. I'll try and put in pictures of the ones that I can and link you back to posts where I originally had checked an item off the list.

So here it is, the final report:

#2 - View at the Top

1. No coffee or soda for 3 months - Completed

2. Climb Mount Monadnock- Completed

3. Run a 5K in under 35 minutes - Completed

4. Read Paradise Lost - Not done

I honestly cannot even remember what led me to put this on the list. I don't know if I though reading this book would round out my literary education or what, but I tried about three times to read this book and every time I gave up about page 10. I am not even sad that I never crossed this one off the list.

5. One day of each week leave the TV off for 6 months- Completed

Honestly, this one wasn't that hard to accomplish since leaving college especially, I have really cut down on time spent killing my brain cells in front of the television. In fact, I don't even own a television at this point in my life and I don't miss it at all.

6. Make a list of 25 things I like about myself - Completed

7. Go to church at least 3 times a month for 3 months in a row - Completed

8. Give up fried food for 3 months - Completed

9. Stop biting my nails - Not done

I would love to lie and cross this one off the list, but it seems that once I think I've managed to break this awful habit, I'll get super stressed out and then I'm back to square one. This is one list item I'm going to hold on to until I finish it.

#12 - Giving the valedictorian speech

10. Pass the NCLEX - Completed

11. Pass the HESI - Completed

12. Graduate from Riv with a GPA of 3.8 or higher- Completed

13. Go without music for 3 days - Not done

I can't say for sure that I was able to do this over the past 1001 days. I originally put it on the list, because I used to have to listen to music at night to fall asleep. It was a coping mechanism that I wanted to be able to live without which I am now able to do with usually no problems. So in some ways, the purpose of this item was accomplished, but the actual task never got done so its left undone.

14. Apply to and get into graduate school - Not done

This is one item that I've said before I gave up on completing within the 1001 days long ago. In deciding to volunteer for a year after college, I changed the whole time line I had imagined for going back to school. This is one that I'm going to hold on to for the future.

15. Establish and follow a consistent workout routine - Completed

16. Save a minimum of $1o a month into a savings account - Not done

Epic fail is all I really have to say about this one. I did open a savings account, but that's about where this one ended.

17. Minimize swearing - Completed

18. Finish scrapbook of Europe - Not done

19. Take dancing lessons of some type - Completed

Line Dancing at Jenny Wiley Campground in Eastern Kentucky - once in a lifetime experience.

20. Go on a road trip - Completed

21. Make a time capsule - Completed

22. Make homemade ravioli - Completed

23. Pay for 5 people at the drive thru behind me on separate occasions - Completed

24. Finish reading all of the Jane Austen books - Not done

I got to all of them except for Emma and Mansfield Park which are both sitting on my bookshelf waiting for me to set aside the time to read them.

25. Take a photography class - Not done

26. Learn and memorize how to make 5 dishes from scratch - Completed

The winning recipes are: Homemade Mac 'N Cheese, Spinach Calzones, Chicken Parmesan, Buffalo Chicken Quesadillas, and Minestrone Soup.

27. Donate hair to Locks of Love - Completed

28. Become an organ donor - Completed

29. Go to a Redsox Game at Fenway Park - Not done

30. Call Mom once a week for 2 months - Completed

#32 - Finished today

31. Go ice skating - Completed

32. Crochet a baby blanket - Completed

33. Go back to the mountain for camp - Completed x2

34. Build a piece of furniture - Completed

35. Spend day with Grandma learning how to make egg biscuits - Completed

36. Go visit Annie in the Bronx - Completed

37. Renew my passport - Completed

38. Make a list of 101 things that make me happy

This has literally taken me all of the 1001 days to complete, but so worth it. A few of the things on the list include the show Modern Family, arranging things in ROYGBIV order, porch swings, and finding a wheat penny.

#38 - Letters from my Grandma

39. Visit 3 museums - 2/3 Completed

40. Take B-12 Vitamin every day for a month - Completed

41. Buy Dutch Blitz - Not done

This one kind of became obsolete when I moved to Kentucky because everyone of my camp friends basically has their own set of cards and now that I live in Michigan Kevin has a set and there's no point in both of us owning them.

42. Be able to do ten ‘manly’ push-ups - Completed

#42 - I think that about sums it up

43. Clean my closet out of clothes that I don’t wear - Completed

44. Attempt to/Donate blood three times a year for the duration - Completed

45. Make a quilt - Not done

Although I never got around to doing this, I am confident that I will in the future as Kevin's mom is a wonderful quilter and has offered to teach me. I cannot wait!

46. Send a postcard to PostSecret.com - Completed

47. Weigh less on Day 1001 than I do on Day 1 - Completed

This is something I put on the list very hesitantly since to fail at this one would be kind of hard to admit. But I decided to just go for it and I am so thankful that I have not had to admit failure in the least, in fact quite the opposite is true - about sixty pounds opposite.

48. Watch 20 Oscar Best Picture winners (that I have not seen yet) - 13/20 Completed

49. Go to a drive-in movie - Not done

50. Read the Bible from cover to cover - Completed

51. Visit 5 new states - Completed

52. Learn how to do a cartwheel - Completed

53. Blog about the list and how its going at least once every other week - Not done

54. Read 10 non-fiction books - Completed

55. Learn how to make sweet tea- Completed

56. Spell my name out in photographs - Completed

I can't take full credit for this one as I had some help. My friend Kate as a going away present for when I left Kentucky gave me a framed version of this list item with both photos she and I had taken. I like to think it counts.

#56

57. See and take pictures of at least 5 sunrises - Not done

The seeing part I can confidently check off, the picture taking I'm only 75% sure of.

58. Host a board game night - Completed

59. Identify 10 people who inspire me - Completed

In no particular order: Florence Nightingale, Don Miller, Eva Pageau (my Meme), Father Ralph Beiting, Mother Teresa, Greg Mortenson, Gary Hirshberg, Prof. Pat Hagan, Paul Farmer, and Sister Dianna Ortiz.

60. Build a gingerbread house - Completed

61. Memorize a poem - Completed

Fire and Ice by Frost and most of The Road Not Taken by Frost. I didn't say it had to be a long poem...

62. Get a massage - Completed

63. Send a message in a bottle - Not done

Part of #64

64. Make a collage of my camp pictures - Completed

65. Go skiing - Not done

66. Learn how to and make bread from scratch - Completed

67. Discover 20 new bands that I like and buy at least 5 of their cds - Completed

68. Visit Sammi at school or have her come visit me at school - Completed

69. Ride in a hot air balloon - Not done

70. See a Broadway play - Not done

71. Say a prayer every night for a month - Completed

72. Go to 5 concerts - Completed

73. Create 10 play lists of 10 songs each for 10 different emotions - Completed

74. Learn how to make Pic-A-Lili and make it with Mom - Not done

75. Go to the dentist - Completed

76. Floss every day for a month- Completed

77. Pay off library card debt - Completed

78. Don’t complain about anything for 3 days straight - Not done, many attempts however

79. Go horseback riding - Not done

80. Visit Grandpa’s grave - Completed

81. Send the Floyd House a Care Package - Completed

82. Send the Bloemker Family a package - Completed

83. Send the girls a picture and a letter - Completed

84. Clean out the boxes in my closet at home - Completed

85. Learn 5 new songs on the piano - Not done

86. Send Leia a care package before she comes back from AmeriCorps - Completed

87. Send Brian the 'Sticky and the Brain' Picture - Completed

88. Buy Friday Night Lights Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD - Not done

89. Watch the original Disney Movie Robin Hood from start to finish - Completed

90. Run for SGA President for Senior Year - Completed

91. Send Kim a postcard - Not done

92. Send another care package to a camp friend - Completed

93. Print out pictures to fill the frame Shawna made for me - Completed

94. Take a yoga class - Completed

95. Write Courtney a letter - Completed

#100 - The collection (also #38 - ROYGBIV)

96. Buy a nice camera - Not done

97. Learn how to change a tire on a car - Completed

98. Learn how to change the oil in a car - Kind of Completed

I was taught how, but there are no guarantees I could pull it off by myself now.

99. Make a Zits comic strip book out of old calendars - Completed

100. Acquire 5 more bandannas of various colors - Completed

101. Donate 1 dollar to a charity for everything not completed on the list by Day 1001

And so the final count is this: seventy five items completed to the fullest and twenty six items left either half done or never started. This list has helped me do some things I never thought I could, and helped me realize I didn't actually want some things I thought I did. Although the perfectionist in me wishes I could be finishing day 1001 with nothing left on the list, I can say I am happy with what I've been able to do and all in all I'd consider my 101 list a success.

Now I just have to choose a charity to receive my twenty six dollars - choices, choices.

23 Going on 85

2011-11-13T19:18:00.001-05:00

I have been meaning to blog about my recent crafting adventures for some time. Due to the fact that I used to have a ton of extra time on my hands combined with the fact that I still don't have much of a social life I have taken up several projects as of late. One of the main things I have started is crocheting which I have done on and off since I was younger, but never with much success. I decided to try my hand at it one more time and finally this time it stuck. I am working on a big project which cannot yet be revealed on the Internet, but I promise when its done I will post pictures. However, I can share with you my first completed project of which I am very proud.

About a month or so ago, I was desperately trying to come up with a gift for Kate and now that I don't have unlimited access to all sorts of fun power tools my options were limited. And then I decided to try to make her a hat, but not just any hat - a monkey hat. I found the pattern on another blog and decided to give it a go. It went amazingly well. In fact I was able to finish the entire hat in two days. The only problem was it came out about the right size for a 8 year old child's head. And so I had to repeat the process, but with a bigger crochet hook and another few days later I was able to finish the monkey hat and send it to her. I will admit I contemplated keeping it for myself, but I forced myself to send it off before I could change my mind.

Homemade Card

Another thing I have been doing a lot of lately is making homemade greeting cards of sorts. I've mainly just been utilizing scrapbooking supplies that I've had around for awhile, but this past Friday I was able to go to an actual card making class. At the class, you go in and there's supplies set out for four different cards and you can make one of each for a small price.

My favorite

So I spent about an hour and a half on Friday with ten middle age to elderly ladies making cards. Just a typical Friday night in my life these days. Actually, that is much more exciting than my typical Friday night which usually consists of some reading, some baking, or some type of craft project and then going to bed before 10pm. I think I may be turning into a Grandma way before my time.

Well, I have to go check on the homemade granola I am currently in the middle of making. My dear friend Molly from Camp Shawnee sent me some for my birthday and I loved it so much I got the recipe from her and am now attempting to make my own. I wish I could link you the delicious smell that is coming out of my kitchen right now because it is wonderful. I'm waiting for it to cool so I can add the dried fruit and bag it up for my breakfast - yum yum!

Delicious & Nutritious Granola

The Grand Tour

2011-11-13T19:01:00.001-05:00

As promised, here are some pictures of the new apartment. And yes it really is that empty. I'm furniture challenged at the moment, but I'm working on it.

I thought I would post the floor plan of my apartment so you might have something to reference to and then you might be able to picture it a little better. My apartment looks exactly like this except its flipped completely like a mirror image. I live in the front of my building so my view out my windows is mostly of the road and some other buildings, but I do get to see the most beautiful sunsets most nights.

My dining room, kitchen, and the door to the laundry room.

My super empty living room.

The extra bedroom/my craft room.

The bathroom in the hallway.

My room (please note my ghetto fab night stand).

My walk-in closet.


Bathroom off my bedroom.

That about does it for the tour. It obviously is still in need of some TLC and decorative touches and some furniture, but I can't complain. I have a bed, a bathroom, a place to cook and even a table to eat at. The rest I'm sure will come with time.

Still Here

2011-11-09T21:33:00.002-05:00

For all of you who have been concerned, please rest assured I am still alive. I have just had a crazy whirlwind of a last month or so. In fact, I think its almost been exactly a month since I last updated you all on life and so here is the long and short of it.

I spent most of the month of October orienting full time at Eaton Rapids Medical Center where I was hired per diem on their med/surg floor. Its a very small community hospital in the the town of Eaton Rapids, but everyone there has been super welcoming and helpful with aiding me in transitioning back into nursing. This week I started at Allegiance Health in Jackson where I will be working full time on a cardiopulmonary med/surg floor. I have in class orientation all this week from 8am to 4ish pm every day which can be more exhausting than working on the floor. Next week, I start my orientation on the floor and then I have one more week of classroom and then back to the floor for good. I will be orienting on days till mid December and then I will be transitioning into my full time nights position. So between working 36 hours a week at Allegiance and picking up extra days at Eaton Rapids, I will be kept very busy which I will not complain about as that's all I wanted for the last several months.

On top of starting two new jobs, I also moved into my very first apartment in the middle of October. I really love my apartment and feel super blessed to have gotten it. Its a two bedroom second floor apartment in Mason, MI. It has two bathrooms, a spacious living room/dining room, a kitchen, and even a small laundry room with my very own washer and dryer - no laundry mat for me! The best part about it is that I got the apartment for the price of a one bedroom because there was a special when I signed my lease. Its almost too big for just me, and because I don't have much furniture its pretty empty. My living room is probably the worst as I don't own a TV, a couch, a coffee table, or really any decorations. In fact, right now its mostly full of the packaging from my bed which just arrived this past weekend. Up until that point, I'd been sleeping on my mattress on the floor with a milk crate for a night stand. The milk crate lives on, but I have now upgraded to sleeping on an actual bed. I'm not too concerned about my lack of furniture, I'm sure that I will eventually acquire more than I need but until then the floor works just fine for me. It is different to live all by myself, as I've spent most of the last few years living in community or the dorms where there's always someone else around. However, I am enjoying it and its giving me some time to work on some projects from my 101 list which I will hopefully be posting pictures of soon.

Speaking of pictures, I'm sure you all are anxious to see what the new casa looks like, but my camera has not made a miraculous recovery so I will have to borrow Kevin's camera some time soon and then post the photographs here for your viewing pleasure.

Well, that's my life in a nutshell and its almost my bed time as I have work tomorrow at Allegiance from 8am to 4pm and then at Eaton Rapids from 7p - 11p. Working makes me an old person that goes to bed at 9:30 or I'm useless the next day.

Goodnight!

And the Mist Clears...

2011-10-10T23:33:00.000-04:00

Yesterday at church I heard the most beautiful analogy/story and I can't help but to share it with you. Its one of those things that you hear and it touches you so much that you want everyone you know to feel that same way. As the pastor was sharing, I began to jot down some notes and so here is my version of his story with some embellishments and a few thoughts of my own added on.

Lets imagine that you moved to Washington state during the 'gray season' where its always overcast and the clouds constantly fill the sky. The locals tell you that there is a beautiful mountain nearby. You look around in disbelief and up at the dense clouds and ask where is this mountain? They point towards one of the clouds and say 'Right over there'. You scoff at them, because as long as you have lived there you have never seen anything but clouds, clouds, and more clouds. As the days and weeks drag on, the more you hear about this mountain and how wonderful it is without ever actually seeing any definitive proof, the more you begin to think this whole notion of a mountain existing somewhere out in the cloud cover is a big hoax. Its not that you don't want to believe in the mountain, you want to, but it just seems impossible. You soon reach a point where you so doubt the claims of a mountain that you decide to rebel. You form a Mountain Deniers Club and hold meetings in a local coffee shop. Of course, at these meetings you often are interrupted by people who claim to have seen the mysterious mountain and you argue back and forth often about its existence. But these arguments get you no closer to discovering if there is actually anything behind the clouds.

You come to the realization the only real way to solve the mystery is to head out in the direction of the supposed mountain. So you set out on your journey but its hard to see where your feet are taking you because of the fog. Soon you notice that you are climbing and that the trail is switch-backing its way upwards. Your faith begins to grow a little stronger. As you climb higher, the clouds start to thin and you begin to see the outline of the mountain you are climbing. Its not completely clear to you, but you start to believe in it. Eventually, you reach the top and the mist clears and you can finally see it in all its glory, completely revealed, and all of its majesty is there for you to behold.

Isn't that the most beautiful thing you've ever heard? When the pastor told this story, I could picture the whole scene in my head - the beautiful mountains shrouded in fog, the winding trail, and the sun breaking through the mist revealing the beauty awaiting the traveler. I could see myself on the journey and feel the joy of finally seeing the thing I had heard so much about and wanted to know for myself.

And isn't this the only way to truly find and come to know God? You have to set out in His direction. You don't have to believe necessarily that what you're looking for is out there, but you just start to move towards it. And eventually you find yourself smack dab in the middle of His presence and your doubts fade. Rob Bell, an author I enjoy, described it in one of his books like jumping on a trampoline. He said that if the trampoline was a relationship with God then all the springs are the doctrines of the faith. You don't necessarily have to believe in all of those springs to start jumping. And Paul, another author who I admire, said this about the end result of taking a journey up a mountain we're not so sure exists "we find ourselves standing where we always hoped wemight stand – out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory".

Sometimes I sense that we think have to wait until we have all the answers before we can start a relationship with Christ, but from what I can tell that seems to be the furthest from the truth. You just have to start, whether you picture yourself jumping on a trampoline or you see yourself on the journey to an unknown place, once you do that, He'll take care of the rest. He's already done all the work, its up to us to make the move towards Him.

When It Rains, It Pours

2011-10-02T15:38:00.003-04:00

If you had asked me last week at this time what my biggest concern was than I would have told you it was getting a job. Fast forward to yesterday, and I would have had to tell you that it was choosing between two job offers. Funny how God works isn't it?

This past week I was offered three different nursing jobs over the course of three different days. I went from having no potential jobs and feeling at a loss for what should be my next step to being overwhelmed by my employment options. It started Wednesday when I received a voicemail message from one hospital telling me that although they had filled the full time position I had applied for that they were interested in hiring me on as a per diem nurse. On Thursday, I received a call from another hospital in Jackson, MI offering me a full time Registered Nurse position on a cardiopulmonary medical surgical floor on the night shift. Finally, on Friday, I was also offered another full time Registered Nurse position on a general medical surgical floor on the night shift along with an every other weekend rotation for a hospital in Grand Rapids.

As exciting as multiple job offers are, they also posed a new problem - having to choose between the two full time offers. Before getting the third offer, I admittedly had prayed that they wouldn't offer me the job so that the decision would be made for me as ridiculous as that may sound. However, as you know that is not how the situation played out, and instead I was faced with weighing the pros and cons of each offer. And after a lot of time and thinking and praying and re-thinking, I was finally able to make a decision.

So now I can proudly say that I am an employee of 6 NorthWest at Allegiance Health in Jackson. I am so thankful for this opportunity and excited to (finally) begin my nursing career. Unfortunately, the job doesn't start till the beginning of November because of their orientation schedule, but there's an upside to that as well. Remember the first job offer for a per diem position? I'm still waiting to get in touch with them, but I'm hoping that I will be able to pick up some shifts there while I wait for my full time position to begin. And if not, then I will take the time to enjoy one last month of unemployment and free time before I join the rest of the working world.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,

to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

The End of September

2011-09-26T17:36:00.000-04:00

September marks my first full month in my new state of residence; in fact its been over five weeks since I made the very long drive out here to begin this new exciting phase of life. Mid August to the end of September is kind of a crazy time in general for me as far as important life events go and so adding in the excitement of moving halfway across the country and the ongoing drudgery of trying to procure a job has really pushed this month and a half to its limits. These past five weeks have been interesting, exciting at times, deathly boring at others, and full of new life experiences.
Since I've already updated you on the not so exciting or successful job search (which is still on-going), I thought I could also share about some of the more enjoyable activities I have been able to do since moving here.

For those of you who don't know, my birthday is in September and so to celebrate my 23rd year on this lovely planet, Kevin and I went to a local apple orchard and cider mill. We went in the early afternoon in the middle of the week so we had almost the entire place to ourselves. There were four or five different types of apples being picked at the time and we decided to try and grab a couple of each. We picked Jonamacs, Galas, Cortlands, and MacIntosh legally, and despite my misgivings we may have also snagged a few Golden and Red Delicious that we passed by.

The Country Mill which is located in Charlotte, MI also makes their very own donuts and cider on site which we were able to sample after we finished gathering our half a bushel of apples. I was especially fascinated by the cider tap which we used to fill our gallon jug of cider; both the cider tap and its contents were amazing. After the orchard, we went home and cooked up some dinner and the ended the night with some desert and candles. I opted out of cake for my birthday, and instead we made an apple crisp and just stuck the candles in the frozen yogurt. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday.

In a more recent adventure, I was able to have my first Michigan fishing experience. I have not had the opportunity to fish at all over the past few years, except for a few random attempts at the Camp Shawnee pond which were entirely unsuccessful. So I was super excited to be able to spend my day with Kevin on Lake Ovid at Sleepy Hollow State Park to celebrate our one year anniversary and to finally test out my new fishing pole. We rented a small row boat and I can now say that I have somewhat mastered the skill of controlling a row boat. I will admit that we spent a good five minutes going in circles until I figured out the whole steering part, but I did eventually manage to get it under control. According to Kevin, fish like 'structure' so we parked our boat near a dock in a small cove and spent the rest of our afternoon there fishing. He was right because the fish never stopped biting and we even managed to catch five, albeit very small, fish between the two of us.

My First Fish

Hopefully, October will bring a whole new set of adventures, mainly the beginning of my nursing career. That is one adventure I am completely ready to take on at any moment.

Thank You For Your Interest...

2011-09-15T16:09:00.000-04:00

...but we have selected another candidate who best meets our current needs at this time.

...but the position you applied for has already been filled.

...but we have identified candidates who more closely match the requirements of the position.

I cannot tell you how many of these emails I have received over the past three to four months while I have been searching desperately for a nursing job. They try to put it nicely or word it in a way that isn't quite so direct, but its hard not to read between the lines and see: you aren't good enough.

If I'm being brutally honest, it has not been easy getting rejected time and time again for one nursing job after the other. I did well in school. I not only excelled academically, but I was involved in various extra-curricular activities and leadership roles. To top it off, I have a degree in the health care field, getting a job was going to be easy or so I was told. I have learned, along with a lot of my fellow nursing school graduates, this is often not the case. Hospitals want someone who has experience, someone who they won't have to spend so much time and money orienting, someone who is less likely to burn out than a new grad just getting into their career.

To them, I am a huge risk. I have little actual nursing experience and therefore I am more of a liability than an asset. However, I will never make that transition unless someone, anyone gives me a chance. I am still in the painful process of finding that someone, that one organization, that is willing to take me on. I've filled out countless online applications, scoured the web looking for nearby hospitals with openings, called numerous Human Resource Departments, gone to job fairs and several interviews, but so far its all just ended in disappointment.

After a while, it really starts to get to your psyche. I mean for a while I was getting four to five rejection emails a week saying 'thanks, but no thanks'. Its hard to see that pop up in your inbox almost daily and consequently feel your self-esteem slowly deflate.

Now, I do not say all of this so that you all can throw me a pity party where we all sit around and talk about 'poor Bethanie', because really, honestly, in the big scheme of things, my problems are minuscule compared to what some people are going through. I still, thanks to the generosity of others, have a place to live and food to eat, I have a car, and I even have a job interview tomorrow. So life really isn't that bad. In fact, life is wonderful and beautiful, no matter how frustrating this phase of it is at the moment.

As far as the crushing blows to my self-esteem, I even came up with a solution for that. I decided to make myself complete #6 - make a list of 25 things I like about myself. I honestly have been dreading this list item since I wrote it down. Our society as a whole is more comfortable pointing out the negative things we see. We look at something beautiful and manage to find the one error and blow it up and make it the focus. We find it much more difficult to find the positive in others and especially ourselves. And I am by no means exempt from this epidemic of negativity, but I am fighting back. I wrote down on paper twenty five things that I like about myself - ranging from physical to mental to spiritual and everything in between. Now, I am not that self-absorbed or brave enough to post that list here, but rest assured it does exist. In place of the list, I'll leave this quote in hopes that maybe it might inspire you to find the good in yourself as well, no matter what everyone else is telling you.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that

other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, as children do.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,

we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

~Marianne Williamson

Ravioli & Rice Pie

2011-09-11T20:00:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, in a serious campaign against another boring day in my unemployed life, I decided to take on task number twenty-two - make homemade ravioli. And if that wasn't enough to do for one day I also decided to make my first attempt at re-creating my grandmother's rice pie. I know, I know; my heart could barely handle all the excitement either.

Ingredients & Recipe

I started off my cooking extravaganza with making the pasta dough which surprisingly only consists of three ingredients: egg yolks, flour, and water. First, I put 3 cups of flour in a large bowl and made a crater in the middle which I next filled with 5 beaten egg yolks. Using my hands, I mixed these two ingredients together adding water as needed until I had firm, but sticky dough. I then kneaded the dough for about ten minutes at which point the dough was a lot smoother and kind of stretchy. Kneading the dough takes a while and honestly, I was kind of winging it because I wasn't sure of the exact process, but it seemed to be going in the right direction so I went with it. I then put the dough aside to rest until I was ready for the next step in the process.

While the dough was resting, I started on the rice pie. Now my grandmother's rice pie is famous within my family which makes attempting it a daunting task. She makes them for Easter and it is a favorite among my family - especially my brother. In fact, there's a story that always gets brought up at the mention of rice pie when my brother is around. My grandmother often makes rice pies to give away to different people including my family. Well, one time she entrusted Nathan with this pie and he brought it home and didn't tell a single person about it, but instead ate nearly the whole thing by himself. True story. So I have high expectations to live up to if I plan on ever letting my family try my version of this treat. Rice pie for those of you who have never had it before is basically what the name implies - a pie of sorts with a sweet rice filling that includes cinnamon, ricotta cheese, and crushed pineapple to name a few things. I got the recipe from my grandmother who like a lot of good cooks doesn't actually measure when she cooks which makes her written down measurements more of a guess than actual fact. In turn, this complicates things for me further as I've never seen her make rice pie which would help with the whole guessing game of adjusting the recipe as needed. To start the rice pie, I set out to cook the rice which for some reason was more complicated to me than it should have been. I think I misunderstood her directions and just tried to boil it until tender rather than just cooking it normally which I think is my best bet for future attempts.

The Crust

While the rice was cooking, I set out to make the crust which was also my grandmother's recipe. Just as with her filling recipe, these measurements were also guesses, but it came out great with no real adjustments. I then finished mixing up the filling for the rice pie which is where I had my biggest moment of doubt. The filling had several liquid components to it which watered it down quite a bit and it looked extremely runny which I had been warned against so I wasn't sure if it was going to cook properly. However, at this point there really wasn't anything I could change so I just went with it and filled two 9x2 loaf pans and popped them in the oven, all the while with my fingers crossed hoping for the best. They had to cook for an hour which allowed me to turn my focus back to the ravioli.

Before I could begin actually putting together my ravioli, I still had to make my filling. I decided to go with a relatively simple ricotta and spinach filling. However, if you're interested in making your own ravioli there are literally hundreds of ideas online for different and interesting fillings. The recipe I decided to go with called for: 1 pound each of fresh (cook it first!) spinach and ricotta cheese, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon of nutmeg, 4 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix it all up and viola, you have a delicious filling ready to be placed inside some freshly made pasta dough.

With the filling ready to go, I was now ready to begin the actual ravioli making process. I separated my dough into 4 pieces and rolled them out one at a time into about 1/8 inch thick rectangles which I cut in half - one for the top and one for the bottom. I originally was going to make the ravioli with just a knife and a fork, but Kevin's parents happen to have a ravioli maker of sorts which I decided to use. Unfortunately, there were no directions and I am 99% sure I did not fully take advantage of this machine because it didn't really cut them out as I had anticipated, but it was a good guide as far as the size of the ravioli and the amount of filling to put inside. I would lay out the bottom sheet of dough, place the filling at appropriate intervals, rub egg yolk - the glue - all in between the filling and then lay on the top sheet and press down on the ravioli stamper. The ravioli maker/stamper didn't cut all the way through the dough so I had to go back and finish the cut with a butter knife most times, but other than that it wasn't difficult at all. I got ten ravioli out of each of the 4 sections and was able to get another 8 or so good ones out of the scraps left over. The only ones I had trouble with were the ones I tried to make out of the leftover scraps. The dough seemed overworked and wouldn't roll out thin enough and wasn't holding together as well. In the end though, I was left with a decent amount of well-made raviolis - ready to be cooked and eaten.

The Good Ones

Now that my ravioli were made, it was time to cook them, but first I had to get my rice pies out of the oven which had thankfully lost their runny look and seemed to be on the right track. I ended up leaving them in the oven a little longer than an hour because I wasn't sure if they were cooked all the way through, but after an extra ten minutes the tops were browned and the filling was firm which seemed to be the test for doneness according to the recipe. I took them out and set them on the counter to cool for their later test taste - which they did pass with flying colors.

With the rice pie finished, it was time for the ravioli to complete their journey to the plate via being cooked. My biggest concern with the ravioli was that when I went to go boil them that they would split open and then I would be left with only plain squares of pasta floating around in a very, very watered down cheese and spinach sauce of sorts. I'm sure it would be just as gross as it sounds. Freshly made ravioli only has to be cooked for 3 to 5 minutes in boiling water so I was hoping they could survive that short amount of time. Thankfully, my fears were unfounded as all the ravioli made it through their cooking time without any incident. All that there was left to do was finally sit down and eat them which as we all know if everything goes as planned is the best part of any cooking experience. And these ravioli did not disappoint.

The Final Products

Home-made Spinach & Ricotta Ravioli

Grandma's Rice Pie

Its Been A Long Time Coming

2011-09-06T15:23:00.002-04:00

...but I finally finished number 73 - create 10 playlists of 10 different songs each for 10 different emotions. I first started blogging about this particular list item back in January of 2010. I updated my progress this past February by posting two of the lists - one for those in love and one for those suffering through heartbreak.

Everytime I open my Itunes I see these ten playlists waiting to be completed on the right side of my screen and every once in a while I would hear a song and drag it over to a folder for further review in the future. Yesterday, I finally sat myself down and went through every playlist, deleting, adding, and re-arranging, until they were all done. So without further adieu, I give you the finished project:

You Flew Off With the Wings of My Heart & Left Me Flightless

~ a playlist for the broken hearted ~

Without You Here (Goo Goo Dolls)

Hanging On Too Long (Duffy)

Almost Lover (A Fine Frenzy)

The Pieces Don't Fit Anymore (James Morrison)

Dreaming With a Broken Heart (John Mayer)

I Still Ain't Over You (Augustana)

Set Fire to the Rain (Adele)

Colors (Amos Lee & Norah Jones)

Breakeven (Script)

White Blank Page (Mumford And Sons)

Whatever Our Souls are Made Of, His & Mine are the Same

~ a playlist for those in love ~

Stay With You (John Legend)

Vanilla Twilight (Owl City)

You Picked Me (A Fine Frenzy)

Crazy for You (Adele)

The Way I Am (Ingrid Michaelson)

You Make My Dreams (Hall & Oates)

Lucky (Jason Mraz feat. Colbie Caillat)

Home (Christina Perri)

Better Together (Jack Johnson)

I'd Rather Be With You (Joshua Radin)

At The Core of All Anger is a Need That Isn't Being Fulfilled

~ a playlist for when your blood is boiling ~

Everybody's Fool (Evanescense)

The Joke (Lifehouse)

Mean (Taylor Swift)

Bang Bang Bang (Christina Perri)

Sick Cycle Carousel (Lifehouse)

Devil in Me (Kate Voegle)

On My Way (Ingram Hill)

Are You Happy Now? (Michelle Branch)

Not Ready to Make Nice (Dixie Chicks)

Completely, Peferctly, & Incandessantly Happy

~ a playlist for when life couldn't be better ~

Beauty (Lamont & Ten Shekel Shirt)

High of 75 (Relient K)

People Should Smile More (Newton Faulkner)

Life is Wonderful (Jason Mraz)

Here Comes the Sun (The Beatles)

We're All in this Together (Ben Lee)

The Heart of Life (John Mayer)

Anthem (Phantom Planet)

Beautiful Day (U2)

All This Beauty (The Weepies)

Death Leaves a Heartache No One Can Heal, Love Leaves a Memory No One Can Steal

~ a playlist for grief and loss ~

There Will Be a Light (Ben Harper & the Blind Boys of Alabama)

With You in Your Dreams (Hanson)

I Will Follow You into the Dark (Death Cab for Cutie)

If I Die Young (The Band Perry)

Arc of Time (Bright Eyes)

Keep Me in Your Heart (Warren Zevon)

Slipped Away (Avril Lavigne)

Shadow of the Day (Boyce Avenue)

My Immortal (Evanescense)

When I Get Where I'm Going (Brad Paisley)

Each Betrayal Begins With Trust

~ a playlist to help you nourish the wound left by the knife in your back ~

Screaming Infidelities (Dashboard Confessional)

Betrayal (Fiction Family)

Cheated on Me (Gavin DeGraw)

Liar, Liar (A Fine Frenzy)

The Best Deceptions (Dashboard Confessional)

Stab My Back (All American Rejects)

Viva La Vida (Coldplay)

Picture to Burn (Taylor Swift)

Goodbye (Secondhand Serenade)

Cheater, Cheater (Joey & Rory)

Every Man Has His Secret Sorrow Which the World Knows Not

~ a playlist for the gloomy days -

How To Save a Life (The Fray)

Something's Missing (John Mayer)

Your House (Alanis Morisette)

Follow Me (Kid Cudi)

Storm (Lifehouse)

Misguided Ghosts (Paramore)

Let It Be - Across the Universe Version (Carol Woods & Timothy T. Mitchum)

Hurt (Johnny Cash)

Let Her Cry (Hootie & the Blowfish)

Sad Song (Christina Perri)

Missing You Could Turn From Pleasure into Pain, If I Knew You Were Feeling the Same

~ a playlist for those helplessly stuck in unrequited love ~

Wish You Were (Kate Voegle)

Gravity (Sara Bareilles)

Make You Feel My Love (Adele)

When You Gracefully Creep In (Averi)

In Your Atmosphere - Live (John Mayer)

Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want (She & Him)

Out of My Mind (Colbie Caillat)

You Belong With Me (Taylor Swift)

Again I Go Unnoticed (Dashboard Confessional)

Don't You Remember (Adele)

The Key to Change Is Letting Go of Fear

~ a playlist for that terrifying six letter word ~

Coffee Break (Forever the Sickest Kids)

If I Fell - Across the Universe Version (Evan Rachel Wood)

The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most (Dashboard Confessional)

Change Gonna Come (B.O.B., Charles Hamilton, & Asher Roth)

Stop This Train (John Mayer)

There Goes the Fear (Doves)

Days Go By (Lifehouse)

Tomorrow (Avril Lavigne)

Hey World - Don't Give Up Version (Michael Franti & Spearhead)

Waiting on the World to Change (John Mayer)

Sometimes When One Person is Missing the Whole World Seems Depopulated

~ a playlist for loneliness and separation ~

I Never Told You (Colbie Caillat)

What Am I Gonna Do (Dave Barnes)

Back to You (John Mayer)

Gotta Have You (The Weepies)

Living in Your Letters (Dashboard Confessional)

The Fear You Won't Fall (Joshua Radin)

Don't Leave (Ben Lee)

I'm Scared (Duffy)

Penguin (Christina Perri)

See You Later, See You Soon (Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers)

Slowly, But Surely

2011-09-03T22:54:00.002-04:00

I have less than three months to finish my 101 list and since I am currently unemployed, which is a whole other ongoing battle, I sat down and made myself a list of everything still left on my list and decided where I stand on items that are still left undone.

In keeping in line with my ongoing attempts to keep you updated on my progress here is where I stand:

15 items in progress
10 items that I know will not happen between now and November 27th
17 items that I still have yet to start

When I initially wrote the list, I had a few more things to do, but since then I have been able to cross out a few, some of which I realized I had done some time ago and some that I was able to do this past week now that I have a little extra time on my hands.

One of these such tasks was accomplished Wednesday. Much to my dismay, I had to get a Michigan driver's license this week as my license is going to expire on my birthday which is right around the corner. Its hard to see one of my more concrete ties to the East Coast fall to the wayside. I have this secret joy every time I pull out my license and someone says 'Rhode Island? Wow, I think this is the first license I've ever seen from there', but now they'll just see the same old license they see every day and I am slowly becoming a resident of the 'mitten state' as one of my friends called Michigan recently. I tell you all this because in getting my new license I was able to check off the box stating my wish to be an organ donor if anything should happen to me (#28).

Slowly, but surely I will finish this list. I hope.

Road Trips

2011-08-24T13:17:00.000-04:00

My VIP setup in the Backseat

This post marks my first official blogging experience in the state of Michigan. I arrived here on Saturday after a cross country driving adventure with both my parents in a pick-up truck. Luckily, we were blessed to at least have an extended cab so we weren't riding three deep the whole 27 hours. As you can imagine that sort of time in a car with two other people can be quite the experience and with my family you are basically guaranteed several laughs. One of these such laugh-inducing situations occurred after I took over driving about 10:30PM on Thursday night. My dad had been driving up to this point and so he decided to climb into the backseat to try and get some sleep. As you can tell from the picture to the right there wasn't a whole lot of room to work with. First, he spent a few minutes trying to rearrange bags and blankets to get comfortable all the while grumbling about the lack of space, while my mom and I teased him about his picky-ness. Not more than one minute after he finally got comfortable, he had the unfortunate experience of getting a cramp in his leg and was yelling and making all sorts of odd noises in the back seat trying to stretch it out which as you can imagine is quite impossible. My mother and I were none too supportive and could only manage to laugh through this entire experience. It may not seem funny to you reading this post, but let me tell you after 9 hours in a car and still 10 to go just about anything seems hilarious.

Auntie Connie & Us

My parents decided that since we were heading out to the Midwest that they might as well extend our trip out to Wisconsin to visit some family. So for the first leg of our trip we drove straight through the night from our house to Madison, WI. While in Wisconsin we were able to visit with my Dad's cousin, Ralph, and his family and to go and visit my elderly great aunt who recently moved out there where she could be better cared for. It was wonderful being able to see all of them and visit for even a short time. And from what I understand the mere 7 hours separating Michigan from Wisconsin basically makes us neighbors in the Midwest so I'm sure there will be many more visits to come.

After spending Friday in Wisconsin, we got up Saturday morning and began our drive to Okemos, MI - my new home. We unfortunately ran into some terrible traffic so the drive took a little longer than anticipated, but we arrived at the house after about an 8 hour drive. We spent the weekend together, doing a little sight-seeing, a good deal of visiting, and lots of relaxing. My parents headed back to Rhode Island early Tuesday morning and from what I hear that was a whole other adventure, involving accidentally ending up in Canada, but you'll have to talk to one of them about that.

So this is the beginning of my new adventure - my move to the Midwest and the beginning (hopefully soon) of my nursing career. It may not be as exciting or ridiculous as my life in Kentucky was, but I hope to continue updating all of you on my life via this blog. Who knows maybe Charlie the Mountain Man has a twin in Michigan?

All I Ever Do Is Say Goodbye

2011-08-16T15:12:00.000-04:00

It seems that all I have done in the past few months is say goodbye to people. Just about the time I'm beginning to recover from one separation, another one is at my doorstep.

I think it started when I moved to camp and began the separation away from Housing which was an ending and hence a goodbye of sorts. Then at camp, counselors leave at various times so there was numerous weekends marked by some one's departure. This fact doesn't make the final goodbye at the end of the summer any easier, as not only was I saying goodbye to people, but also a place that has meant so much to me and holds so many wonderful memories. I left camp on a Saturday afternoon only to wake up Sunday morning and say farewell to Eastern Kentucky completely after a year of living and serving in those beautiful mountains. Needless to say, it was a draining few days for me.

My Lovely Family at the Party

Now this week marks the beginning of goodbyes to my family and friends. We had a going away party on Sunday and I had to say goodbye to most of my extended family and one of my dearest friends from college. This week has been punctuated with various goodbyes, including some of the more difficult ones to older relatives who I don't know if I'll see again. There was one today that hit a little harder than I anticipated. I went to go see my Great Aunt Kay who is in a nursing home to say both a hello and a goodbye. I explained to her that I was moving to Michigan which she couldn't believe - 'Its so far away!', she told me. (To you non New-England people, Michigan to any true Rhode Islander might as well be located on the other side of the world for how far away it is.) I told her that I had met someone and that is where he lived and so I was moving to be closer to him. She smiled and laughed and with a few other comments seemed to be more accepting of my decision. We talked for a few minutes and then as I was getting ready to leave, she grabbed my hand and her eyes teared up as she whispered that when I come back to visit I have to make sure that I see her and that she loves me so much. She held on so tight for a few minutes as I, with tears welling up in my eyes, barely managed to get out the words to say that I would come back and that I loved her too.

I still have many goodbyes to go and I know that no matter where I go in life the goodbyes will go on. As difficult as they are, I don't think I would want to do away with them. They remind me how much I appreciate someone and make me value the time I do have with those people. I only wish that they would get easier with time.

Five to Ten Years

2011-08-04T11:35:00.000-04:00

One thing I was able to accomplish a good portion of this summer was knocking some more items off the 101 List. One that I was particularly excited about was #21 - make a time capsule.

I've always wanted to do this, but never got around to it or really set aside the time to put one together. I figured that now would be as good as time as any to finally make my own time capsule, if not better as I am in such a place of transition and change. I started working on it several months ago when I lived at the Floyd House. I found an old metal John Deere popcorn tin in the truck bay at the the office and began to think about what I wanted to put inside and where I could possibly bury it. It took me until the last day of camp, but on July 30th I finally managed to finish, seal, and bury the time capsule.

Digging the Hole

Its contents include:

Letters from various of my fellow CAP-tives to themselves
A Harry Potter movie ticket
A 2011 Camp Shawnee T-Shirt
A picture of the 2011 Camp Shawnee counselors
And a few other random assorted things

I sealed all of the contents as best as I could - in multiple layers of Ziplock bags and Tupperware containers and then caulked the seams of the can. I along with some of the last counselors left on the mountain then took it to its resting place and buried it where it shall stay for the next five to ten years. Yes, that's right - five to ten years. I could not decide if I wanted to go for the full ten or succumb to the American part of me that demands instant gratification would be able to make it to five so I've left it open for me to decide at a later point.

The Time Capsule Crew

Camp reunion in 2016 or 2021 anyone?

I've Got to Be Going Now

2011-08-03T23:42:00.002-04:00

(Side note: to really complete the experience of reading this blog I suggest listening to David Lamotte's Song for You; I apologize in advance if this causes you to tear up, because it gets me everytime)

I realize it has been far too long since I've updated my blog and I cannot possibly hope to cover all that has transpired in the last month and a half in one post. How could I even start to describe my summer at camp, my last few months in Kentucky, and my on-going transition to life outside of the mountains?

Summer, as always, flew by. Although this year I felt like it was moving faster than normal, as I always had in the back of my mind that this would be my last full summer up at Camp Shawnee with the small children and all the other amazing, crazy camp counselors. I couldn't have asked for a better summer to end my counselor career on however. The group of counselors on the mountain this summer were an absolute joy to be around and work with, and they all helped me grow in some way. Another one of the beautiful things about this summer is the fact that I got to see campers that I've known for years come back to camp and see how they've grown and matured. A lot of times when our kids leave us at the end of summer, they are going back to places that aren't the most stable or the most loving and sometimes honestly downright terrible. It makes it really hard to watch them drive away on the bus knowing that they're leaving a safe haven and wondering whats waiting for them on the other side. But as a returning counselor, its so wonderful to see a familiar face come back summer after summer and talk to them and hear how they're doing and know that they are okay.

My rescuers

There are so many crazy stories that I could share about my summer, but I feel that there is one I have to share or you all would miss out on one of my crazier Kentucky adventures. During the last two weeks of camp this summer, I served as the camp nurse instead of a counselor. As part of my role as the nurse, I gave out medications to the campers, with the bulk of them requiring morning and night doses. (To help you understand the rest of this story, please keep in mind that the door of my office opens to the left with the door handle on the right.) The third night of Teen Girl week I was in the middle of night meds and was alone in my office when I heard a voice outside say "Oh my goodness, there's a snake!" Naturally, I immediately walked over to the door and opened it to see what was going on. When I opened the door, I was greeted by a 2 - 3 ft copperhead snake slithering its way from the right towards my open door. Of course, I was shocked and had no idea what to do, except I knew there were campers on the other side of the door and I did NOT want the snake going anywhere near them. My immediate reaction was to shut my door which just got the snake trapped in the door jam. So now I not only had a copperhead half in my office to deal with, it was a ticked off, slightly squished copperhead. For reasons I still do not understand, I re-opened the door and the snake was now trapped between my open door and the entrance to my office. If you remember the way the door opens, you may be able to imagine that the snake's first instinct would be to follow the angle of the door right into my office. I quickly shut the door to prevent it from getting back out to where the campers were and then grabbed my walkie to call for help. It went something like this: "Aghhhh....nurse's station....copperhead...aghh!!" "Um, what did you just say?" "I'm trapped inside the nurse's station with a copperhead!" It was at this point that every male counselor, save one, came running full speed to my office to save me. By this point, the copperhead had coiled itself up and its head was raised and it looked like it could strike at any moment. Luckily, the boys were able to crush its head with a rake and then eventually decapitate it and dispose of its remains. It was at this point after a quick clean-up of the snake's blood on my floor, I was able to resume giving out medication.

Just another night at Camp Shawnee.

Although camp was absolutely wonderful and I wouldn't trade it for anything, it was very different in that this year I now had connections in Kentucky outside of camp. Camp is such an all-consuming experience, it takes over every part of your life and all of your time. It was hard trying to balance that and still maintain the relationships I had formed outside of camp. One of the closest friendships I formed during my year with CAP was with my crew member Kate from Housing and it was really difficult not seeing her for weeks at a time, especially after seeing her all day, every day for ten months straight practically. Luckily, I was able to see her and my crew leader Tony before I left several times and she'll be in the New England area at the same time as me so we will get to have a reunion shortly.

Now for the final part of this post, the transition to life outside of the mountains. I left Kentucky on Sunday morning and drove to Michigan with Kevin. From there, I caught a plane to Rhode Island on Tuesday and now I am sitting in my kitchen at home typing up this novel of a post. Its all still slowly sinking in; living in Kentucky takes over your life so completely, sometimes its hard to remember I had a life before. Change is never easy, especially for me, and I get completely overwhelmed when I think of all the new things that I am going to have to adjust to here in the real world. But I read a quote the other day that I've decided to take on as my own as I face a whole new set of adventures.

For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. This perspective has helped me see there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So treasure every moment you have and remember that time waits for no one.

Happiness is a journey, not a destination.

- Souza

And so I'm facing this next phase of life with the utmost confidence that it will be wonderful, no matter what happens.

Here's to the adventures to come.

Its All Fun and Games

2011-06-07T20:50:00.000-04:00

...until someone loses an eye.

How many times have you been reprimanded with this comment by your mother only to laugh it off and continue with your fun and games? Well, I did too. Except for today it just about came true for me. It seems that the state of Kentucky is bound and determined for me to lose an eye and today its wish almost came true (for the second time).

F Channel

Kate and I were getting some supplies from the storage shed for the house we are currently working on. I had grabbed a bundle of F Channel which comes in 10 foot long sections and is used to put up Soffit. Kate grabbed the last piece we needed and then we headed out to the truck. As I was walking, Kate decided to lightly poke me with her piece and I retaliated by turning so that the end of my bundle knocked into her side. The next thing I know I am receiving a mighty whack to the face with the end of a piece of F Channel. I just remember dropping my bundle and hearing one of the other crew leaders yell "Sweet Jesus!". I grabbed my eye where the piece had hit and hoped for the second time in the past year that I still had a functional eyeball. Luckily, after a few minutes the fuzziness and stars in my vision went away and I was left with just a swollen eye which by the end of the day had turned into a decent shiner. To top it off, the injury happened to my good eye instead of the one that had already taken a beating from the Dremel in November.

The Damage

Now in Kate's defense, she didn't mean to hit me in the eye or as hard as she did. As far as we can tell, the piece of F Channel because it is so long had a whip like effect when she swung it at me and the end got going a lot faster than she intended. She did feel really bad and apologized quite profusely. Although by the end of the day, she jokingly admitted the real reason she did it is because its my last week in Housing as I will be moving up to Camp Shawnee this weekend for the duration of my time in Kentucky. She told me its like a gang. You're in it for life and if you try and get out than you get beaten up.

I am thankful that I somehow managed to narrowly escape with both my eyeballs still intact. However, there still are a few days left. I'll keep you updated.

Third Time's the Charm

2011-05-22T20:33:00.000-04:00

I know this post has been quite a while in the making, but every time I try to sit down to work on it something comes along that pulls me away from my computer. And that only happens if I even have time to actually sit down at my computer which has not been the case lately. However, I am determined to post a little about my life tonight. Therefore, my derriere is glued to this seat until the post is completed and displayed on my blog. I'm here for the duration.

The last time I posted I was about to leave for Guntersville, Alabama to participate in CAP's disaster relief efforts there. I along with a large group of volunteers served the residents of the Marshall County area for a period of about a week and a half. Disaster relief is completely draining work. You work about ten hours a day, every day except Sunday which you get the morning off to attend church and rest before you go out in the afternoon. A large part of what we did while we were down there was tree removal from homes and yards and some crews also tarped roofs.

Tree removal means a lot, lot, lot of chain sawing and hauling brush. The first day we were there we worked with an older couple who had upwards of twenty trees down in their yard. I was running one of the saws and had on all my safety gear and my hair tied up in a bun under my hard hat (I learned my lesson from the Dremel Incident). I stopped for a minute to take a break and get some water which required me to remove my hard hat and face shield. I turned to talk to one of the girls hauling brush and was interrupted by one of the older male volunteers, Charlie, exclaiming in disbelief, "You're a girl!" To which I replied with a laugh, "Yes. Yes, I am a girl." Charlie quickly recovered with, "I just mean you really know how to run that chain saw". I reassured him that I took the comment as a compliment and not an insult. As a side note, I was not the only woman this happened to during our time in Alabama. The same thing happened to someone else and after the man got over his original shock he proceeded to ask her where she was from. When she told him Kentucky, he said, "Thats where that other woman with the chainsaw was from. Man, I know where I'm getting my next wife from!" Apparently, I am a hot commodity. Who knew?

Beast Mode

One of the big projects we worked on during our time there was a community of about seven families that had been almost completely devestated by the tornadoes. There was only two or three trailers still standing and none of them were unharmed. Those whose homes were gone were living in donated campers as they worked on clean-up and the eventual rebuilding process. I worked on a home that had been completely destroyed by the tornado; all that was left was a pile of rubble. The man who owned it had built the home by himself from trees he had cut down from the surrounding area. He had moved to Alabama after losing everything he owned in Katrina, and now is being forced to once again start from nothing. His son and two grandchildren had been in the home when the tornado hit and only by some miracle they had managed to crawl out of a space no bigger than a wheelbarrow after the storm subsided. All we could do for him was help him sort through the rubble for personal momentoes and any tools that were still useable and remove any metal or wire that he could sell at a scrap yard. The rest we piled up by hand and with the help of a bulldozer so that he could burn it in order to clear the space to rebuild. Despite the utter devestation around them, these families still had hope and were more than kind to us. During lunch one day, a group of us were searching for shade to sit in to have a break from the scorching 90 plus degree weather. Shade is especially difficult to find when all the trees in an area have been torn out of the ground so the task was proving more difficult than one would anticipate. We noticed a spot under one of the homeowner's camper and wandered over to ask if it would be all right for us to sit there. The lady reassured us that we could while saying, "Shade is the least I can do for you".

Although relief work is completely draining, it is moments like that which make it completely worthwhile. I have still not completely recovered from my time in Alabama as I have been going non-stop since then, but I would do it again in a heart beat.

The only thing I would change was the flat tire we got on the way to Alabama. I wish I was joking. And unfortunately I could not even showcase my tire-changing abilities as the truck we had borrowed was lacking a tire iron. Such is my life.

Alabama or Bust

2011-05-02T18:08:00.001-04:00

I just wanted to right a quick note to update everyone on my latest adventure. Early tomorrow morning, I will be heading to Marshall County, Alabama to take part in CAP's disaster relief efforts there. Myself, Kate, and three other people from my house will be making the seven hour drive to Guntersville, Alabama where we will help with recovery and relief efforts in areas that were devastated by the April 27th tornadoes.

We will be staying at Camp Ney-A-Ti which was thankfully not affected by the storms and has electricity and running water - practically a resort. Kate and I are only able to stay until the morning of the 11th as I have to catch a flight out of West Virginia on Thursday morning. I'm sure I will have many stories and pictures to share with you all in a few weeks, but until then please keep myself, the other volunteers, and the survivors in your prayers. And if you feel so led, you can make a donation to CAP to support relief efforts.

Monday Fun-day

2011-04-25T21:00:00.000-04:00

Oh Monday, you never cease to amaze me with the things you throw at me.

Who wouldn't be jealous of these shirts?

While we were waiting for Tony this morning to come back from running errands, Kate and I decided to head down to the main office and check out the Miracle Bin. The Miracle Bin to explain for non-CAP people is two large cardboard boxes that are full of donated clothes & other random assorted objects. Anything in the box is up for grabs for CAP volunteers and employees and we occasionally go through the box to see if there is anything we as poor volunteers could utilize. Most of the stuff in the boxes is completely hideous and out of style, but every once in a while you find a miracle - like the American Eagle and JCrew shorts I found last week in my size. However, today was more of the former versus the latter for treasure finds. To pass the time, Kate and I decided to try on some of the more awful attire and each of us picked out a shirt to wear for the first half of our day.

In typical Monday fashion, we also got a flat tire today on Tony's trailer which means that I got to showcase my tire-changing skills once again. So while Kate and Tony took photos, I successfully changed my second tire. Really the pictures say it all...

Disbelief

Anger/Frustration

Doing Work

Part of the tree - over 40in across

After I got the tire changed, we got back on the road and continued our journey to Wheelwright, KY to look at another disaster relief job. At this home, a tree had fallen onto the roof and went through their ceiling. The damage is unbelievable, but from the size of the tree that fell it is not surprising. After looking at the extent of the work needed, our manager decided that the job would take too long so it is going to be referred to another program in CAP which means we get to (finally) go back to our WorkFest job. And I couldn't be more excited.

Overall, not to shabby for a Monday.

The Two Hardest Workin' Women This Side of the Mississippi

2011-04-21T20:17:00.000-04:00

Today, Kate and I had our second encounter with Charlie the Mountain Man from Teaberry, KY and it was just as, if not more, exciting as our first meeting.

Charlie was waiting for us at his mother's home when we pulled up to work this past Wednesday. He greeted us by calling us the 'two hardest workin' women this side of the Mississippi' and bragging on us to his friend about how we carried all the shingles up the ladder and onto the roof. He then proceeded to ask us if we wanted to see his horse which he had brought down from his place and was keeping at his mom's. So we took off around the house to meet Charlie's horse which he had tied up under the apple tree.

The meeting/conversation went something like this:

Me: Can I pet her or will she bite me?
Charlie: No, she won't bite you. She's a good horse. Won't kick you. If she does, I'll kill her.
Me and Kate: Oh ok.

Charlie Proving His Point

At this point, Charlie motions us closer and asks me to hold some of his things so he can prove his point about the gentleness of his horse. He then proceeded to grab the tail of the horse and pull on it with is entire body weight saying "See? It won't kick you. Surely won't. Look here!" The horse couldn't have cared less and just continued to graze.

Me: Um, yeah I guess you're right. Does she have a name?

Charlie: I call her Murry.

Me: Mary?

Charlie: Yup, Murry. But that's just what I call her, y'all can call her whatever you like. Well, that's her. She's a real good horse. Won't hurt ya'. I'll see y'all later. I'm going mushroom hunting.

And with that and a few more parting words, Charlie took off with his friend to go up in the mountains and look for mushrooms. He brings all sorts of greens and mushrooms home to his mother that grow on the mountains here and are good for eating. Augustina even gave some of the greens, called Tangle Gut, to Tony for him to take home and try.

Unfortunately, we finished the roof at Augustina's house yesterday so we probably won't be seeing Charlie again. Unless by some good fortune, he happens to be around when we bring back her new windows. So far, I've met a pet coon and got to meet the most long-suffering horse in the universe, I can only imagine what else Charlie has up his sleeve.

I have my fingers crossed.

Mary & I

All the Shingle Ladies

2011-04-15T17:38:00.003-04:00

When you look at a roof, perhaps your own or a neighbor's home, do you ever think of how all those shingles got up on that roof?

If you are a normal person, then you probably have never considered the logistics of how the shingles make their long journey from the ground to the roof. In fact, I had never given it serious thought until this past week. We were sent back out to the disaster relief job we looked at last week to put on a new roof and even knowing that I still missed that whole part of the process. I was more focused on the actual putting on of the new shingles and hadn't given any thought to the shingles inevitable need to be moved to higher ground.

Monday morning I quickly learned a few things:

    1. Shingles are heavy.
    2. Shingles get on the roof by you carrying them there.
    3. Shingles are really heavy.

Our Lunch Break
(Please note the pile of shingles pre-move-to-the-roof)

For those of you who have never had the opportunity to shingle a roof, allow me to elaborate. Each shingle consists of three connected tabs or what looks like individual 'shingles' from the ground. They are about three feet long and a foot wide. Shingles come packaged in stacks of 26 shingles wrapped in plastic called bundles. Each bundle weighs 90 pounds and we had 78 of these. All of which needed to make their way up to the roof.

As far as I can tell from the past week, the best way to carry a bundle of shingles is to stand it up on its side on edge, manage to beast it up onto my right shoulder, let it lean slightly against the side of my head, and then begin the slow ascent to the top of the ladder where Kate would be waiting to take it from me. Walk back down the ladder. Let Tony take his turn. And repeat. And repeat. And repeat. Until all the bundles have made their ascent. Not to toot our own horns, but we managed to unload both loads of bundles at the pace of one per minute which I must say is nothing to be ashamed of.

The one thing we have had to learn to be careful about with this job is the wind that comes down through the holler. On Monday, it was just strong enough to knock over our ladder leaving all three of us stranded on the roof. Tony tried to figure out a way to get the ladder from our position on the roof, but that plan was quickly discarded. Tony had no choice but to pull out his cell phone and call inside the house to alert Augustine, our elderly participant, about our situation. The beginning of their conversation went as follows:

Augustine - 'Hello?'
Tony - 'Hello this is Tony'
Augustine - 'No, it isn't. Tony is up on the roof.'
Tony - *Hangs head in shame* 'Um, yeah, that's me.'

Tony explained our situation and together they tried to think of some sort of solution. Unfortunately, Augustine would not be able stand back up the extension ladder on her own so we were really in quite a pickle. However, we somehow managed to time this event so that it coincided with trash pick up and Augustine was able to flag him down and get him to come help us out. Immediately upon recovering our ladder, Tony tied it securely to the roof to avoid any future problems which it did for the remained of the week.

The Shingle Ladies

Its unfortunate that shingles are such a pain in the derriere to move because I think I could otherwise find nothing wrong with spending my days on a roof. Since we are just going over the old shingles, laying down the new ones is a rather easy task and once you get into the swing of things it becomes a repetitive slightly thoughtless task. Line up the new shingle with the old one above it, bump it up against the tab of the one below it, and nail it down. Then on to the next one. Being up on the roof in the sun and 70 degree weather we've been having can get a bit toasty at times, but I don't think I've ever been this tan, even if it just a farmer's tan, in April before so I can't complain.

Girls, I Got Somethin' to Show Ya

2011-04-07T20:32:00.001-04:00

After living here in Kentucky for eight months, I thought I had seen just about all of the craziest, off the wall things possible. Alas, once again I was proven wrong.

Today I met a mountain man named Charlie and his pet coon.

Charlie's Destroyed Home

Charlie is the adult son of a woman whose home was referred to Housing by the Disaster Relief Program at CAP. My crew and I were sent out to assess the job which was in Teaberry, KY about an hour and twenty minutes from the office. We were going to assess the damage caused by a tornado that touched down in the area during the bad storms we had this weekend and then write up a cost estimate for repairs. The home was one of three trailers that we had been informed of that suffered damage. It had two broken windows and some damage to the roof - mainly shingles and a vent being torn off by the wind. From our view on the roof of the house, we had a perfect view of the lot behind the home where a trailer, or really what was left of one, and its contents had been strewn all over.The trailer which used to belong to Charlie had been turned completely over and landed upside down in the yard completely flattened. Thankfully, Charlie had been out when the tragedy occurred. Its roof had flown over the neighboring house and into a telephone pole across the street. We could clearly see the path the tornado had taken as the next trailer had suffered no damage whatsoever, but there was a distinct line through the hillside where full grown trees had been snapped in half like toothpicks.

Charlie, who is now staying with his mother, came over to us and informed us that he 'had something to show to us girls that we had never seen before and might never see again'. How could we resist an offer like that? So, Kate, Tony, and I followed Charlie up the hillside to the lot where his trailer used to sit. He lead us over to a large pen and proceeded to pull out a full grown, rather obese raccoon. Charlie, an avid coon hunter, had rescued the raccoon when it was only six days old when he was out hunting one day. As he raised it from infancy, the raccoon is quite tame and was licking Charlie's face and seemed completely at home in Charlie's arms and even let me and Kate pet him. Charlie is completely in love with his pet as is evidenced by the raccoon's well fed physique and his spacious home. Charlie also has a slew of coon dogs, three of which we were able to meet. Never lacking in creativity, Charlie told us that some of their names include: Bryant's Mountain Insane Night Train, Bryant's Mountain Crazy Daisy, and Queen Bee. Seeing this mountain man so happy holding his pet and telling us all about his coon dogs made me entertain for a brief moment the idea of my own pet coon. However, have no fear, I have not become so much of a mountain woman that I will be out trapping myself one any day soon.

Charlie and I with the Coon

The Upside of a Flat Tire

2011-03-28T22:22:00.000-04:00

Bad News: Today Kate and I got a flat tire on our truck.

Good News: Today I was able to cross #97 off the list - learn how to change the tire on a car.

Assessing the Situation

This morning on the way to work, I noticed the truck was driving a little funny almost as if it was extra windy out and it was being pushed back and forth on the road. I mentioned it to Kate and after some investigation (aka turning down the jams and listening to the truck) we determined that nothing was wrong and maybe it was just a windy morning. Lo and behold, we were completely wrong because as we turned into the office we noticed our extremely flat rear tire. Luckily, it wasn't flat enough to cause any damage to the rim and I was able to get the tire changed with some helpful tips from Tony and Bryan, our manager.

Although it was not the best way to start out my post WorkFest CAP experience, I am excited to finally be able to cross another item off the list.

Way too many still left to go...

The Whirlwind of WorkFest

2011-03-27T19:45:00.001-04:00

I have officially survived WorkFest.

Three crazy weeks of non-stop work, laughter, and stress have flown by leaving me completely and utterly exhausted. Of the three weeks I have only had three full days off which were dedicated mainly to sleep and recuperation which is why I have been remiss in my blogging as of late. Now its time to try and return to some semblance of a normal schedule including posting my adventures a little more often.

Our Family

Although WorkFest was completely draining, it was completely worth it in that I met some amazing people from all over the country and with their help we were able to complete a lot of work for the people of Appalachia. I had previously blogged about my WorkFest job when we were still in the prep phase of this experience, but spending these past weeks there with the groups has really given this project a special place in my heart. Not only were we able to accomplish a ton of work on the two bedroom addition, but I was also able to form great relationships with both our family and all the volunteers that came down to help with the work. Our family is comprised of Chris and Paula and their five children - Milli, Maddi, Darbi, Kiley, and Peyton. They are currently living in a three bedroom trailer which is, as you can imagine, quite squished. Chris and Paula adopted their youngest children - Kiley and Peyton - after the children were taken from their parents, a distant relative of Paula's, due to drug issues in the home. Even though Chris & Paula had never met the children before, they didn't hesitate to take them in and eventually made them a permanent part of the family.

Ditch #3

Over the last three weeks, we were able to complete a lot of work, not all of which can be seen by just looking at the addition. One of these such projects was our weekly ditch digging project. For every week of WorkFest, the group was faced with the taks of digging a new ditch or trench. The first was a four foot deep trench around the addition's foundation to hold the drainage tile which will help move water away from the footer. The second was a 100 foot french drain of sorts along the hillside that runs along the backyard of the house which will also help with keeping water away from the house. The third and final ditch was a continuation of the first trench which took the drainage tile away from the addition and out towards the creek. Other than the ditch digging, we were also able to complete all the framing for the new addition and install the windows, doors, skylight, and siding. From the outside, the addition almost looks completely done, but there is still a lot of work left to be done - electric, drywall, shingles, flooring, painting, etc - all of which will eventually be completed by Tony, Kate, and I.

The "Splinter"

The last three weeks have been made more stressful by the fact that Tony, our crew leader, has had a unfortunate bad string of luck. He started feeling sick the weekend before WorkFest and was feeling under the weather the whole first week. He stuck it out and worked in the nasty, rainy weather that we unfortunately were faced with which is probably why he got hospitalized for pneumonia the following week. After a strong dose of antibiotics and steroids, he finally seemed to be on the mend. However, in typical Tony fashion, he decided to have one last hurrah before WorkFest ended and managed to get a splinter, more like a chunk of wood, through his index finger. It went all the way through the finger and if you look closely you can see it pushing up against the skin on the other side. He went to our local emergency room and they sent him to a hand specialist at the University of Kentucky Hospital in Lexington to have the splinter removed.

Not to take away from Tony's pain, but because he was sick/injured for a good portion of these past three weeks, a lot of the pressure fell to Kate and I as we were left to manage the groups that came in and try and convince them that we knew what we were doing on the work site. By the third week, Kate and I were completely exhausted and running on fumes and the week could have gone terribly, if it wasn't for the fact that our group was absolutely amazing. They all bonded so quickly and despite various delays and setbacks always kept such a positive attitude throughout the week. Without them, I don't think I would have survived the last week, but they made it not only bearable, but one of my favorite CAP experiences so far.

My Week 3 Blue Crew

As fun as the insanity of WorkFest can be, I am ready to return to my normal level of Kentucky craziness and hopefully one day catch up on some much needed sleep. Before I can do that though, I still have one last adventure to go and that is my five day trip to New Hampshire to see my family and speak at my alma mater - Rivier College. However, I will gladly sacrifice a little sleep in order to see my family for the first time since Christmas.

Helping the Time Pass

2011-02-28T19:08:00.003-05:00

Our Table

Today was another not so exciting day in Housing as we are still in the calm before the storm phase of WorkFest. Kate and I have exhausted most options for things to entertain ourselves with as making fun of Tony can only last us so long. So we were excited about the newest addition to the housing vehicle bay - a miniature air hockey table. The table randomly showed up last week and it couldn't have been a more perfectly timed present. We spent a good portion of our day battling it out in the loft of the bay today trying to make the hours pass a little faster. As part of our new hockey obsession, Kate introduced me to a new way of playing - finger hockey. Its basically regular hockey except you use your hand as the mallet. So far as I can tell, the best strategy is to try and fling the puck as hard as you can at your opponent's hand and hope you hit the edge of their finger or palm just right so that they move their hand away from the table in pain allowing you to score. Or at least that's how we play finger hockey. Let's just say, that both of our hands are little worse for the wear after today.

I also have been able to knock off two items from the 101 list that have taken me a while to complete as they were rather lengthy items: #s 54 and 67.

#54 - Read 10 non-fiction books. And they are as follows:

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
Sex God by Rob Bell (Don't judge the book by its title, read it and you'll be surprised)
Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks, MD
Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller
3 Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Fearless by Max Lucado
The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert
Better Off by Eric Brende
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

#67 - Discover 20 new bands that I like and buy at least 5 of their CDs.

If I'm being completely honest, I actually own some music from each of these artists, some of it purchased by myself and some of it given to me by other people. Therefore, I'm calling it even on the 'buy at least 5 of their CDs' portion of this list item.

Dave Barnes
Mumford & Sons
Grace Potter & the Nocturnals
The Avett Brothers
The Band Perry
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros (this video is how I got hooked on this band)
Ingrid Michaelson
Joshua Radin
B.O.B.
Michael Franti & Spearhead
Mika
NeedtoBreathe
Regina Spektor
Staves
Adele
Kid Cudi
Duffy
Kings of Leon
The Weepies
Ben Harper

So if you're looking for some new reading material or perhaps some new music, than you have quite a lengthy list to choose from now. I've linked each book title/artist to their homepage if you want to know more about them and to help you make a decision. Maybe it'll give you something to help the time pass.

Nine Houses in Two Days

2011-02-27T22:10:00.000-05:00

How is it possible that it has already been almost two weeks since my last blog post?

I wish I had some ridiculous adventure to entertain you all with, but honestly it has just been lots of little stuff keeping me busy. The entire Housing Program at CAP is in full WorkFest-prep mode these days. Most of the crews, ours included, have finished work on any projects we had left over and are focusing on making sure we're ready for 3 different sets of 80 to 100 college students to join us here in Kentucky for their spring break. Kate, Tony, and I have spent the last week or so cleaning out the trailer and our bay and organizing all our supplies so that when the craziness begins we'll know where everything is. I must say the sorting and organizing falls right under all my OCD tendencies so that has been a nice change of pace. However, I would much rather be out at the work site doing more physical work. I find myself going a little crazy by the end of the day for lack of doing any real sort of physical labor like we usually do. Tony keeps telling me I'll appreciate this down time in a couple of weeks when I'm two weeks into the craziness that is Workfest.

As part of our prep work for WorkFest, my crew also has been making a birdhouse/feeder for each of the jobs that will be worked on. Each house will be decorated with a picture and information about the participant that it belongs to. They also open up to allow the students to leave an encouraging note to the participant whose house they work on during their time here. Lastly, when all is said and done, the house will be given to the participant as a keepsake. In theory they sound wonderful, right? Not so much in real life. Making nine replicas of the same birdhouse gets old fast. Between losing dexterity and feeling in our thumbs from spray painting and scraping our knuckles one hundred times too many trying to attach door clasps, Kate and I were quickly over the birdhouse build. Honestly, we were probably over the whole idea before it even started; Kate had forewarned me about the birdhouses as she had the privilege of assembling them last year as well. Thankfully, we were able to complete the houses in about two full days which scrapes about three and half weeks off last year's time.

Now that I think about I guess I did have an exciting adventure to share with you: nine houses built from the ground up, including a roof and a spacious front porch.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition has got nothing on us.

A Day Late

2011-02-15T19:17:00.002-05:00

It seems that I am continually running behind schedule lately, and no matter how much I do I can't seem to catch up. Therefore, it is only appropriate that I am posting this short Valentine's day blog a little late. I guess that it was meant to be however because I did take the perfect picture for it today at one of our new participant's house.

So in honor of February 14th and St. Valentine, I am posting a small portion of #73 on my 101 list - two of the ten playlists. One for those in love and one for those out of love. These playlists have been in the works for so long and even now as I get ready to post them, I wish I had more time to find ten perfect songs for each one, but I am content with what I have here and hope you all enjoy them as well.

You Flew Off With the Wings of My Heart & Left Me Flightless

Without You Here (Goo Goo Dolls)

Hanging On Too Long (Duffy)

Almost Lover (A Fine Frenzy)

The Pieces Don't Fit Anymore (James Morrison)

Dreaming With a Broken Heart (John Mayer)

I Still Ain't Over You (Augustana)

I Never Told You (Colbie Caillat)

Colors (Amos Lee & Norah Jones)

Breakeven (Script)

White Blank Page (Mumford And Sons)

Whatever Our Souls are Made Of, His & Mine are the Same

Stay With You (John Legend)

Vanilla Twilight (Owl City)

You Picked Me (A Fine Frenzy)

Crazy for You (Adele)

The Way I Am (Ingrid Michaelson)

You Make My Dreams (Hall & Oates)

Lucky (Jason Mraz feat. Colbie Caillat)

1234 (Feist)

Better Together (Jack Johnson)

I'd Rather Be With You (Joshua Radin)

Un-Building

2011-02-07T22:30:00.001-05:00

Today, Kate and I un-built a deck.

And when I say un-built I literally mean we went through the motions of building a deck but as if we were in rewind. It was a slightly strange process as I am used to at the end of the day being used to look at something I have made, while today I was left with a pile of lumber - the pieces of a deck that we had taken apart.

This deck belonged to one of our Workfest participants. He built the deck with his dad who is a carpenter several years ago and it was one of the last projects his dad was able to do before he became ill and therefore he has strong ties to it. This participant in particular is getting a two bedroom addition on his house to accommodate his family of seven. They're currently living in a 3 bedroom trailer which as you can imagine is quite cramped. The bulk of the work on this job will be accomplished during Workfest - CAP's alternative spring break trip for college students. However, in order to get ready for Workfest, we had to prepare and mark out the area for a foundation which unfortunately needs to go where the deck currently is located which meant the deck had to go. However, our participant didn't want the deck destroyed as it was still in good condition and it held a lot of sentimental value for him. So instead of demolishing it, Kate and I, with a little bit of help from Tony, took apart the deck screw by screw, one plank at a time. Luckily, it was built really well and was not too complicated to take apart. We even managed to save every board we took off (except for one piece that Tony broke). The wood was in such good condition that we will be able to rebuild the deck once the addition is built.

Following are the photos of my day in order from start to finish.

The Un-Building of a Deck

The deck before the dis-assembly

Halfway done removing the decking boards

The bare joists

Taking apart the joists

The pile of lumber and the posts with concrete still attached

57 Degrees Farenheit

2011-02-01T21:16:00.000-05:00

That's right. It was fifty-seven, need I say it again, 57 degrees outside today in Eastern Kentucky.

My Momma in RI

After talking with my mom last night and hearing about the wintry weather they are experiencing in Rhode Island, I am almost scared to briefly share with you the next interesting fact about my day today. But since I am confident that none of my friends and family from New England are close enough to actually induce any physical harm to me, I will elaborate.

In honor of the practically balmy spring day we were blessed with today, Kate and I decided to wear shorts today. Yup, you read that correctly; we wore shorts to work today. Granted, we aren't working outside currently as we are just finishing up patching drywall and painting at our participant's house, but still it was warm enough to wear shorts. We even took our lunch outside on our tailgate and enjoyed what felt like a spring day and not anything like February 1st.

Try not to hate us too much.

Misty Fog

2011-01-29T18:13:00.001-05:00

When you hear the color name 'Misty Fog' what exactly comes to mind? I personally think of the bluish gray color of the fog as it surrounds the mountains most mornings here in Kentucky. I do NOT think of the gosh awful color yellow that I have spent the last week or so covering a house in. In my personal opinion, they would have done a much more accurate naming if they had titled it 'Jersey Smog'.

This face says it all. No more paint!

Unfortunately for me, I have had to spend an abundance of time with Misty Fog/Jersey Smog as Kate and I have been painting with it for what feels like a lifetime. The past two weeks or so, up until the end of the day on Wednesday, all the housing crews have been working on one house which isn't a common occurrence at all. The reason for the exception is that the participant at this particular house passed away recently and to keep from complicating our funding the job needed to be completed very quickly. Having all three crew leaders plus up to seven volunteers working together in a small space, not to mention the participant's two adult sons and their respective girlfriends, is what some would refer to as interesting. However, since I despise the use of the word interesting because it is a simply a placeholder for the real word you want to say but are afraid to, I would say it is exhausting, trying at times, and highly entertaining at random moments spread throughout the day. To spare you all the mundane details, all I will say is that fourteen people with their own ideas, ways of doing things, preferences, opinions, personalities, quirks, and pet peeves are bound to clash on certain points and sometimes we as volunteers get stuck in the middle trying to decide who to listen to.

Part of the old ceiling

But despite all of that, we were able to complete our portion of the job and Tony, Kate, and I were happily back at our participant's home Thursday. And we were NOT painting which made for a much more enjoyable day. Instead Kate and I got to tear down a portion of an old bathroom ceiling which was falling down and replace it with some new drywall. Tearing it down was quite an adventure. We got down the drywall without incident or injury, but then underneath that we found a layer of sagging wallpaper waiting for us. I made just two small cuts in one corner and with one little tug the entire four by seven foot section came crashing down surrounding us in a cloud of foul smelling dust and debris. (Don't worry, I was wearing both safety goggles and a mask.) Underneath the wallpaper, we found the actual ceiling which was made of long planks of old wood which was in good enough shape to be left after we threw in a couple extra screws to hold in a couple loose pieces.

My wasp kill count

Unfortunately, in the process of putting in those couple extra screws we displaced some red waspers who were not happy with us at all. We put the new drywall up but before we had a chance to mud the cracks shut, angry red wasps started to sneak out of the ceiling and fly around looking to exact revenge on whoever had disturbed their home. After killing a few with some well placed hammer hits, I had no choice but to break out the wasp spray and bring an end to the madness. Over the course of the afternoon, I managed to stem the flow of wasps to nothing and for once without incurring an injury to myself.

Bethanie - 1

Red Waspers - 0

After we got the new piece of drywall up, Kate and I had to go and mud over the cracks and corners. The mud comes in a large 5 gallon bucket that needs to be stirred upon opening. Luckily, we have an attachment for our drill that we use to stir the mud which saves us a lot of hassle. Unfortunately, the bucket we had was brand new and therefore it was really stiff and hard to stir. Kate and I drained two batteries on our biggest drill and then we turned to Tony for some help. Tony sent me to the trailer for some supplies and two burnt out drills later we finally had the mud mixed up. Yup, that's right, we literally killed two corded drills mixing up drywall mud The best part was the fact that as smoke was pouring out of the drill Tony continued to use the mixer. The bathroom was full of a hazy fog, thankfully not the color of the dreaded Misty Fog, for a while and it smelt terrible, but we were able to finish the ceiling.

The second drill we killed.

Although our week was really long and I am glad to see it go, it was balanced out slightly by the fact that I conquered a new recipe - my grandma's Italian Wedding Soup. I was cooking this week for the house and was completely out of ideas as to something I could make that we haven't already had. In my family, we celebrate every holiday with way too much food and one of the dishes on the menu is my grandma's soup which is always a big hit. I called her to get the recipe and she walked me through how she makes it from the type of pasta she uses to how she makes the meatballs. Although no one from my family was here to tell me if it compared to grandma's, my housemates really liked the soup and from what I can remember it seemed to at least look right. In fact, one of my housemates asked for the recipe, I told her I'd have to check with my family back home to make sure it was okay.

So family members, lets vote. To share or not to share?

Not So Broken #3

2011-01-28T11:49:00.000-05:00

Smashed Fingers

2011-01-24T08:52:00.000-05:00

Its another lovely snowy morning in Kentucky and I once again find myself sitting at the Floyd House kitchen table waiting along with Kate to see if and when we will be making our way into work. Our manager has already called to let us know that we have at least a couple hours until we could potentially be allowed to leave for work so the two of us have decided to use this unexpected free time to post on our respective blogs. (Kate blogs for CAP's website and her posts can be found HERE.)

In light of my last week at work, I have decided that it is high time that I dedicate a post to my uncanny ability to incur some sort of injury every day of work. Most of these injuries are self-inflicted and due to the unfortunate combination of my clumsiness and a construction site.

*Before I continue on with this blog post, I feel I should throw a little disclaimer out there for my poor parents who already worry incessantly about me especially after the dremel incident. Have no fear Pete and Sue, the injuries I am about to describe are not nearly as terrible or life-threatening as you may be imagining and I have yet to require another trip to our lovely local hospital.*

To help you all understand the type of injuries I am referring to, I am going to walk you through just one of my days last week. On Monday, I managed to smash and bruise both my left pinky finger and thumb with a hammer, put my foot through a rotted out bedroom floor, crush the middle finger on my left hand with a flat bar, and somehow I found a way to bruise behind my right arm above my elbow (I still am dumbfounded as to how I accomplished this). This all happened in just ONE day so you can imagine the number and extent of the injuries I accumulate over the course of a week or a month or a year of volunteering. I am both excited for and saddened by the thought of the day when I am not constantly sporting an array of cuts, scrapes, and bruises that set me apart as a clumsy housing volunteer.

While we're on the topic of self-inflicted injuries, I thought I might as well briefly describe a different source of self-inflicted pain I recently brought upon myself. This past Saturday Kate and I went on an adventure to Pikeville to find Southern Steel Tattoos and Body Piercing. It is a sort of tradition among a good portion of CAP volunteers to mark their time in Kentucky with a tattoo. Since I want to get the most out of my time at CAP, I felt I couldn't miss out on this rite of passage. However, there is nothing that I am ready to permanently ink into my skin so instead I decided to get a new piercing - an industrial. I figure if I can withstand getting stitches in my eyelid without any medication then I can handle getting two holes pierced in my cartilage. As I was sitting waiting anxiously for the piercing to commence, the piercer asked me how I was feeling and if I was nervous. I told her that I was a little nervous mainly because I couldn't remember how bad piercings hurt as its been a little while since I got one. Her response was "Oh, this one hurts pretty good; you'll remember it for awhile". Let me tell you, she wasn't lying. Right now the bar in between the two piercings is a strange sort of curved plastic piece as you can see above, but in 4-6 weeks once it heals I'm going to replace it with a stainless steel one.

Despite my never-ending stream of injuries, both work and non-work related, life in Kentucky is still good. I know that the work I do here, exhausting as it can be, is important and its making a difference - one smashed finger at a time.

You're Grounded

2011-01-12T20:12:00.001-05:00

I can't remember the last time I heard those words but it happened today and from the way things are looking I won't be surprised if I get some more phone calls in the next months that end in "You're grounded".

Have no fear, I am not getting in trouble in Kentucky. Well, let me rephrase, I am not getting in enough trouble to warrant being sent to my room indefinitely. In CAP life, being grounded refers to the fact that we are not allowed to drive company vehicles due to inclement weather which in turn means we can't go to work.

Snow in Eastern Kentucky completely paralyzes people and the schools here are one of the best examples of that. Although it only really snowed yesterday afternoon into today, entire counties have been out of school all week just because of the threat of potential snowfall. Last year some counties ended up with so many snow days that the kids were still in school in the middle of summer. There is good reasons for the seemingly over-zealous cancellations. Here school buses have to travel up back hollers and windy mountain roads in order to pick up their pupils, and as you can imagine, ice and snow doesn't make that easy. So in order to avoid any buses getting stuck or worse being involved in an accident, counties shut down when snow starts to fall or the slightest threat of foul weather is heard.

As far as work cancellations go, we tend to follow the school system, but not all the time. It depends on your manager, where your work site is, how much snow we get, if our steep driveway got plowed, etc.

Sound confusing? That's because it is.

Since I've had a lot of practice figuring out the system this week, I think that I have it down to a science. And this is how it usually unrolls:

1. School gets cancelled the night before.
2. I go to bed knowing I will be delayed until my manger calls in the morning with a plan.
2. I get up the next morning around the usual time; 15 or 20 minutes later if I'm being a bum.
3. I get dressed for work.
4. I go and sit at the kitchen table for an unspecified amount of time waiting for a phone call.
5. I make Kate play card games or Guitar Hero with me to make the time pass.
6. I get a phone call telling me to either get myself into work or to go back to bed.
7. I do whatever I was told to do in #6.

But in typical CAP style, things are always changing and we are forced to be flexible and willing to work with the constant changes. Once I thought I had this whole snow day business figured out, my manager decided to call the house tonight and tell us that tomorrow unless it snows overnight that we are to show up at the office at the normal time. So I guess I have to add an eighth point to this list.

8. Forget steps 1-7 and any sort of system you have in place and just go with whatever we tell you at the moment because this is CAP and its going to change in 5 minutes anyway.

The Final Fifty-Eight

2011-01-04T20:12:00.001-05:00

327 days.

That is all the time I have left as of today to complete my 101 list which I started on March 1st of 2009 - almost two years ago. I can't believe it has been so long since I started this quest of sorts to sit down and write out 101 goals for myself and then to try and meet each and every one of them in 1001 days. I've been thinking about my list a lot lately because I've been feeling that I am way behind schedule. Turns out it wasn't just a feeling, I still have more than half of my list left undone.

58 tasks undone.

That's a lot of things to be checked off the list before my end date on November 27th. In fact, because I am a little OCD and like to break down things into the tiniest details, that means I have to complete at least one task per week and throw in an extra one a couple weeks in order to meet my goal. That seems unbelievably daunting at this point. The one thing I do have going for me is that seven of the remaining fifty-eight are things that I cannot cross of the list until the end date because they are ongoing tasks like #15 - establish and follow a consistent workout routine. But that also means I have to continue working on them until the end date so it really isn't an alleviated burden. I've already come to grips with the fact that some of the items on my list will not get done. I wrote this list at a completely different point in my life than where I am now and some things just don't apply anymore. However, I am still going to try to do as many as I can and leave the bare minimum undone which means I have my work cut out for me.

On a brighter note, I have recently (and not so recently) crossed a few things off the list that I can briefly update you all on.

#3: Run a 5k in under 35 minutes.

This is one of my more recent accomplishments, but it has been a long time in the making. I started running several years ago and have fallen in and out of the practice many times. When I first decided I was moving to Kentucky,I figured I wouldn't have a gym readily available to me like I did during college and I knew I needed to come up with an alternate plan. I am not ashamed to admit I am slightly addicted to working out as I cannot go more than a few days without it or I get really stressed and become not the most pleasant person to be around. And so I started running. I only had one rule for myself - never stop running until you reach your end point. I can run as slow as I want, but I refuse to stop and walk. Some days are better than others. Sometimes I feel like I have 50 pound weights tied to each foot and each stride I take is a struggle, and sometimes I feel like I'm flying and I don't want the run to end. However, regardless of how I feel I make myself run and this past Monday I ran my own personal 5k race around the loop near my house in 34 minutes and 28 seconds.

#20: Go on a road trip.

I've detailed in this blog many of my recent road trips, and really I should have crossed this one off the list quite some time ago as I think I have driven to Kentucky at least 3 times since this list's creation. But I am now officially crossing it off the list.

#51: Visit 5 new states.

Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, & Michigan. Ditto on what I said about the previous list item.

And now onto the final fifty-eight.

Its Not You, Its Me

2011-01-03T17:39:00.004-05:00

I've debated for some time how to write this particular blog post. I always question how people will interpret the words I write and worry that they may take them the wrong way and perhaps be inadvertently hurt or insulted. But as I have been told, the whole point of this blog is for me to have a venue to share my experiences from my point of view with minimal editing and lots of honesty. So here it is: the honest truth.

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains

unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.

(Nelson Mandela)

I don't think there is a better way than that quote to express how I felt being back in the Northeast for a little over two weeks for Christmas break. This break was not only the longest amount of time I have spent away from CAP since I moved here, but it is also most likely the only time that I will be in Rhode Island during my time in Kentucky. It was great to be able to see my family, some of whom I haven't seen since June. I was also able to make up a trip to Rivier, my alma mater, and visit my best friend and some other close friends who are still in school or live in the area.

My break as a whole was rather uneventful. Every day consisted mainly of hanging out at my house, visiting friends/family, at least an hour workout, and some type of arts and crafts project. I did get to show off my housing skills a little bit by helping a friend drywall their living room ceiling one Saturday morning, but other than that it was a welcome break from the type of work I do here in Kentucky.

After about the first week of being back in the Northeast and spending time up at school and home, I came to a realization - as much as I love the people I left behind there I can't imagine myself living there now. It wasn't that I felt unwelcomed, I think it took me coming back and seeing things as I left them, a lot of them still unaffected by time that caused me to notice how much I have changed since I left. Its not that I have drastically changed who I am over the past five months in Kentucky and I am suddenly a whole new person with no connections to my past. I just feel like all the little changes I have been undergoing since I first moved away three and half years ago until now finally are coming together and I am becoming more and more my own person. Not only has my appearance changed (if you had asked me if I would be wearing a hoop in my nose three years ago, I would have been adamant that it would never happen), but my dreams, values, and priorities have also shifted ever so much. I can't even fathom the individual I would be today had I not decided to move to New Hampshire for college and consequently learned about CAP through Campus Ministry which brings me to where I am right now - sitting in my room in a volunteer house in Martin, KY serving the people of Appalachia.

The reason I hesitate even now to hit the publish button on this post is that I know this topic of me separating myself from RI is tough for some people to swallow. When I'm home, I try to avoid the subject altogether and steer discussions neatly around the fact that I don't feel like I belong there anymore.

I find myself using the age old, 'its not you, its me' reasoning that always seems so cliché and leaves the 'you' in the story feeling gypped out of an explanation and oddly at fault, but I don't know how else to say it. It really isn't Rhode Island or my family and friends - who I wouldn't trade for anything in the world - that have brought me to the realization that I don't belong there anymore not that this means I know where somewhere else is yet.

It really is me. I am the one who has changed.

So please don't take this dose of honesty personally.

I promise; its not you, its me.

Where We Love is Home...

2010-12-16T21:29:00.000-05:00

I am back in my home state of Rhode Island as of last Saturday and that is why this post has been so long in the making. I started to blog before I left Kentucky and then the craziness of packing for home and tying up all my loose ends got the best of me and the little start to a post I had written sat patiently waiting for me in my unfinished posts.

Now I'm lying in my bed at home and figured I would pick up where I left off and just continue my story that I had started more than a week ago. So, lets go back to last Sunday...

One of my housemates, Jane, has been asking me for at least the last month or so when I will write about her in my blog and I keep assuring her that I will include her soon, but then I'll write the blog and somehow every time she misses the cut. And every time I feel like a jerk.

Well, Jane here is your moment to shine.

View from the top of the hill

On Sunday, Jane, Maggie, Kevin, and myself went on an adventure to find a Christmas tree in the woods surrounding our house. We had no real means of cutting it down since the splitter was in our truck which wasn't at the house at the time so we were just going to scope out the prospects. After a short jaunt through the woods, we had picked out a couple candidates that we thought could work, but none that had really stood out. We decided to go look one other spot behind our house and then we spotted it up on the hill - the perfect Christmas tree. The only issue was that it was located on the top of this large, steep hillside/rock outcropping that overlooks the highway that runs by our house.

Like we would let a small issue like that stop us.

(Correction, Maggie was stopped by this fact as she decided to observe the rest of us hunt down the perfect tree from the safety of the house which considering the amount of times I was stabbed by thorns may not have been that bad of a life choice.)

The rest of the crew headed up the hillside and with some effort found our way to the top of the hill where we could see the perfect tree waiting for us - on the other side of the barb wire fence. Once again, we were pretty determined to have this tree so Kevin bravely ventured over the fence to confirm the tree was as good as we anticipated which it was. I then had to climb back down the hill to get something to cut down the tree with, as I mentioned before, we didn't have any appropriate tools at the house. However, it is absolutely amazing what you can do with a Sawzall blade. Yup, we cut our tree down with naught but a Sawzall blade with a glove wrapped around the end so you could hold onto it properly.

Ghetto? Perhaps.

Effective? I think so.

We then had to haul the tree over the barbed wire fence and down the hill through a sea of briers and thorns and fallen tree trunks. But it was all worth it when we got to set it up in our living room later in the afternoon.

So that is my latest Kentucky adventure.

And now I am home to enjoy life in the 'real world' aka life outside of CAP for a short while. That adjustment is a whole other post by itself. One which I am too tired to tackle right now, but perhaps in the future.

Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes-

Onions Have Layers and So Do I

2010-12-01T22:30:00.001-05:00

Layers.

Lots and lots of layers.

That is the ONLY way to survive working outside in the winter in the Housing program at CAP. Today was our first real snowfall of the winter and we are still finishing up siding at work so needless to say it was a tad, shall we say, brisk outside today. In order to survive this and to keep from being miserable, I have discovered that dressing in many layers is the way to go.

Today, I rocked an amazing outfit that consisted of:

Leggings
Jeans
Two pairs of socks
Work boots (not steel toe because that is like putting your toes in an icebox)
4 T-shirt like items that are as follows (in order from inside to outside)

Tank top
Long sleeve Under Armour
Short sleeve T-Shirt
Long Sleeve Shirt

A Button up Flannel Shirt
Down Vest
Gloves
Winter Hat

As my crew leader always says, when you dress in layers you always have options for warmth. Instead of having to choose between a parka or a t-shirt, I can try various combinations of the above items for an optimum comfort level.

Have no fear, I don't think I'll be trying out the legging, flannel shirt, and winter hat combo any time soon.

Too Much to Be Thankful For

2010-11-30T18:44:00.001-05:00

This past week I experienced what I fear may begin to be a trend in my life - spending holidays away from my family. This past Thursday was the first time I have ever been anywhere but in Rhode Island for Thanksgiving, and if I end up living outside of the Northeast (as I plan on doing after CAP) then this may become more of a common occurrence than I would like it to. This is not to say that I did not have a wonderful time during my Thanksgiving break, but it was strange to not find myself sitting at the 'young people' table in my kitchen listening to my loud Italian family having the yearly discussion about how 'we really should eliminate one of the four courses from the meal' which is always followed by uproar and the firm decision that we could never do that because then someone's favorite would be gone. I am however comforted by the fact that I get to see my family in two short weeks and I probably saved myself a few thousand calories this Thanksgiving day.

Now for the re-cap of my Thanksgiving adventure to Okemos, Michigan.

I spent my break at Kevin's house with his family - his parents, older sister, and aunt - and another volunteer Caitlin who we both worked with at Camp the past two summers. We left for Kev's house on Tuesday morning and stayed until Sunday morning - the most time I've spent away from Kentucky continuously since moving here in July. The drive takes about 8 hours if you don't run into too much traffic and everything goes smoothly. This is me we are talking about so you should have already guessed at this point that things did not go according to plan and after stopping for lunch in Anna, Ohio, we went out to Kev's car (who I affectionately call Buddy - the car not Kevin) to find a flat as a pancake rear driver's side tire waiting for us. Now Kevin already despises the state of Ohio for reasons I still do not completely understand, but getting a flat tire was definitely not helping its reputation. He was able to get the lug nuts off, but unfortunately the tire was rusted to the car and no amount of kicking at it or yelling or pleading could get the tire to budge so we were forced to call AAA for assistance. While waiting for AAA to make an appearance, we discovered the front passenger tire was also really low on air and that Buddy was in desperate need of some oil. Needless to say, Buddy was in dire straights and deserved some some serious TLC which he fortunately was able to receive via a Truck Tire Stop right down the road. Despite my original misgivings about the tire place, they were really good and had our tire fixed up and us back on the road in no time and after some traffic near Ann Arbor we finally made it to our destination.

There were a couple things on our to do list for this trip, including hockey, some shopping, and a Jimmy John's trip. There was one last minute addition to the list - get my stitches out - as the hospital in Kentucky told me on Tuesday they were not quite ready to come out and I needed to return the following day. Therefore, Wednesday I found myself in a orthopedic surgeon friend of the McCullough family's office waiting to get my two stitches pulled out of my eyelid. I just have one piece of advice for all of you - don't ever get stitches in your eyelid. It is terrible both getting them in and getting them taken out. They are so tiny and your eyelid is so delicate and its just not an experience I would wish upon anyone. However, in the end I got both my stitches out and my eye is none the worse for the wear minus a tiny scar that I'm told is barely noticeable.

Myself, Caitlin, Megan (Kevin's sister), & Kevin

One place that we spent a good deal of our vacation at was the ice rink. We went on three separate occasions to be exact - twice to watch Kevin play pick-up hockey and once to go ice skating. Watching hockey can be quite entertaining, but it is also very very cold. I mean this should be an obvious fact since the place is composed of ice, but I didn't fully comprehend how cold it was going to be until after sitting on the bleachers for awhile and I noticed I could see my breath in the air. I have only been ice skating once before in my life and that was last year so I was pretty nervous about going to free skate. However, I did not do too badly at all. I even learned to skate backwards a little. Its a lot more difficult than I would have thought especially after watching all the guys at pick-up hockey seamlessly switching between forwards and backwards but then again most of them have been playing their whole life. Caitlin also had the chance to practice her figure skating skills while we were at the rink and therefore earned the prize for the most falls - a grand total of six. If you know Caitlin at all, this should not surprise you at all and in her typical style each fall was more entertaining than the latter complete with flailing arms and screaming.

Before I continue on with the next story of my weekend, I need to throw a disclaimer out there.

*This next paragraph is not meant to insinuate in any way that Kevin is a bad cook rather that he is a highly entertaining one.*

Ok, now on with the tale.

Caitlin trying the rice

First a little back story - Kate and I had recently decided at the house that Kevin should have a cooking show because it is so much fun to watch him cook. Once he gets more than one thing going on in the kitchen at a time - watch out! The other day he was cooking pasta on the stove top, had mozzarella sticks in the oven, and was warming up the dipping sauce packet in the microwave. It basically involved him running around the kitchen looking quite frazzled while he was trying to keep everything going at the same time without burning anything which he did manage to accomplish minus a small explosion in the microwave. Kate and I decided that we would produce said cooking show for him under the title of 'Oh Sh*t, the Pasta's on Fire' or the more PC title of 'Kitchen Catastrophes with Kevin'. I tell you this because while we were at his house Kevin decided to make rice and it could have been an episode on the show. He put the rice and water on the stove and it had been cooking for awhile when his mom came over and asked him if he was sure about the amount of rice he had put in the pot in relation to the amount of water. Kevin insisted he was sure he had done it correctly and grabbed the bag to prove his point and then realized that he had put too much rice in and now instead of the few servings of rice he had planned on making we had eleven servings of rice cooking on the stove. Because the ratio of rice and water was off, it took forever for the rice to cook and when it finally finished it was rather sticky, but have no fear it didn't go to waste as Caitlin was brave enough to help Kev finish off the eleven servings of rice.

Caitlin & I at the hockey rink

One of the last fun experience I have to share with you from our trip was the sleeping arrangements I had for the week. Caitlin and I shared a pull out couch for the trip which with any other person would most likely have been more than enough room. However, Caitlin has a tendency to be a very active sleeper. She not only talks and moves around in her sleep, but she is also a blanket hog and a sleep laugher. Yes, a sleep laugher which is just as creepy as you can imagine it would be. The last night of our trip I was having trouble sleeping and was lying in bed wide awake trying to hold onto the little bit of blankets I had left on my side when I heard Caitlin start muttering in her sleep and then burst out with this line "Damn you and your prosthetic leg!". I don't think I even want to know what she was dreaming about.

This post is just an overview of my week. There is no possible way that I could sum up the entire vacation in one post nor do I want to. This post alone has taken me way too long to write and I don't think I could handle sitting at my computer much longer. If you want to read another account of our trip than you can check out Caitlin's blog - just click HERE!

I guess that all I have left to say is that if I had to be away from my family for Thanksgiving I couldn't have asked for a better way to enjoy the holiday than this past week.

Are You a Tough Girl?

2010-11-21T16:04:00.001-05:00

Dremel

Long Hair

2 stitches in my eyelid

I really don't know how to better explain what my Saturday night consisted of other than the above equation. Before I go on explaining, please know for all of you who are concerned that I am relatively fine and there shouldn't be too many lasting effects from this incident other than a new found respect for the Dremel.

Now for all the fun details including some gross pictures so consider this your warning if you are squeamish.

This is the tip of the dremel.
It used to be in one piece
and straight.

Last night I was sitting in my room working on some Christmas presents which I can't really explain any more other than the fact that it required the use of a Dremel because someone who reads this blog is the recipient of this present and I don't want to give it away. Anyway, I was dremel-ing away and out of nowhere my hair got stuck in the tip of the Dremel which because the Dremel spins caused the entire tool to wind up my hair and fly into my eye. The really odd part was that I was strangely calm when this happened. I grabbed the Dremel and held it away from my face and managed to turn off the power. Once I turned it off, my hair unwound from it with no problem and I started to try and figure out what exactly I had injured. Honestly at this point, I was just relieved I hadn't lost a chunk of hair to the power tool. That's when I felt a drip of something hit my hand and realized I couldn't really see out of my right eye and then I quickly came to the conclusion that rocking a bald spot for the holidays was really the least of my concerns.

I went and checked my eye in the mirror in my room and was excited to see that I still had an eyeball all in one piece, but there was a fair amount of blood dripping off my face. I decided the best thing to do was to get Kate to come check out the damage. It took a couple of yells and a "No this is really important!", but she came down the hallway to my room to see what all the fuss was about and after a preliminary "Don't freak out, but I'm going to show you something", I moved my hand off my eye and she was greeted with a site similar to this:

We went into the bathroom where we managed to clean off some of the blood and we determined that my only real injury was a cut on my eyelid and that a potentially amazing black eye was in the works. After some convincing from Kate, we headed off to the Emergency Room to get my eye looked at along with Kevin and my crew leader Tony and his wife Liz.

After waiting about two hours in the ER and explaining my story too many times to count, the doctor finally came in and looked at my eye and assured me they would be able to fix my eye up in no time. The doctor then asked me, "Are you a tough girl?" I knew at this precise moment that I was in trouble and all I could manage to say was "I guess we're about to find out". The problem with cutting your eyelid is that the area is too small to really numb so he had to just stitch it up without giving me anything beforehand. He assured me that it would feel like a bee sting, but I beg to differ. I have been stung multiple times since coming to Kentucky as the house we're working on currently is basically a breeding ground for waspers and I can assure you that getting your eyelid stitched back together hurts significantly more than getting stung. Thankfully, it was only two stitches and I was sent on my way with some antibiotic ointment and these words of wisdom: "Bethanie, when they tell you to keep your eye on the power tools; they don't mean it literally".

Today, I woke up to a much more purple looking eye than in the above photo and a sense of appreciation for the fact that this could have been a much more tragic story ending in me now having one glass eye. So all in all, I really must say as terrible as this story sounds I'm just thankful that I still have both my eyes, I'm not sporting a bald spot on the front of my head, and I will now look pretty stinkin' rugged for Thanksgiving.

The morning after

Ain't No Sunshine

2010-11-17T20:33:00.000-05:00

I miss the sun.

I used to take for granted the fact that I would get to see the sun and feel its rays every day from the time it rose in the morning until it went down in the evening. Yes, I knew that some days would be cloudy or rainy and that I would be deprived of my Vitamin D for the day. I understood that in the winter the days would become shorter and my time with the sun would be even more restricted.

The 2nd hill

I did NOT realize that my time with the sun could be reduced to a mere 4 hours a day. But that is what my life has come to. Our participant's house faces a huge hill and we work in its shadow all morning until about 12:30 and if we are on the driveway side of the house you are then blessed with sunshine until about 3:30 when it starts disappearing behind another hill. I literally watch the sun creep up over the tree line every morning and then watch the sunshine reflected higher up on the hill that the house sits on and wish its warmth down towards me. Today, we were working on the side of the house that never sees the sun and therefore I didn't feel the sunshine until we stopped work for lunch. But from what I understand, this sun deprivation is slightly normal for people around here. I guess its just something I'll have to get used to.

Another difference I've seen firsthand recently between Kentucky and the North East is the abundance and use of railroad crossings. At home, I would see crossings occasionally but I don't think that I've actually seen a train go by and I've certainly never been stuck waiting at a crossing before. But here, we see trains all the time piled high with coal criss-crossing all over the curvy mountain roads we drive on to and from our work sites. The other day we got stuck waiting at least 10 minutes for a train to pass before we could continue on our journey.

I can't say that I really dislike the excuse to sit and just enjoy ten minutes to relax and wind down from the busyness of the day. People move slower here. Here you take the time to talk and more importantly listen to one another and not just rush through life at breakneck speed. While living on Kentucky time, its perfectly socially acceptable for me to show up somewhere 10 minutes late and say I got stuck behind the coal truck and no one will question it or be upset.

Is a little more sunshine while I learn how to wait too much to ask?

Scaffolding, Siding, and Near Death Experiences

2010-11-12T13:36:00.000-05:00

After I posted my last blog, I realized that it has been quite a while (at least a month) since I have dedicated a post to my actual job with CAP - working in Housing. By the time I get through detailing all my weekend adventures in a blog, I am just too tired to add on anything about what I did at work that week. Therefore, this post is dedicated to an update on the work side of my adventures with CAP.

To bring everyone up to update on what I've been doing, first, I suppose I should give a little back story about the house we have been working on. It is located at the end of a holler way out in Knott County and is owned by an older couple who live alone there. It is a small box house which as I can best explain it means that this house was never framed out with studs and whatnot. Instead it is a big box with planks nailed to the frame for the walls with drywall added on the inside and wood siding on the outside. As you can imagine, this does not make for the best insulation situation. In fact, working on this house, we've seen that the house was mainly insulated with newspapers and cloth. We even found a newspaper from the 1920s!

The list of repairs being done by CAP for this house include:

New vinly siding
Interior painted
Drywall on ceiling patched
All new windows and door
New kitchen cupboards and sink
Bathroom repairs including new toilet
New front porch steps

We started working on this house in the beginning of October and we were lucky to have two very skilled volunteer groups come down and help us for two weeks. Between the group's work and the time my crew has spent working we have been able to replace all the windows, install the new front door, install the new cupboards, counter top, and sink, build the new front steps, and paint 3 of the rooms inside. I don't have any before pictures unfortunately, but I can share some photos of the repairs we have done so far.

New cupboards before we put on the counter top and sink

Kate putting together the new porch stairs

Me putting up Tyvek paper

The past week and a half or so we have been working on putting up vinyl siding on the exterior of the house. It has been quite a process because as it is with most of our houses nothing is plumb or level and things never work out quite the way you think they should. Another fun part about this house is its particular location on the hillside. The best way I can describe it is to say you can walk out of the back door into their yard, but in the front there is a walk-out basement with a 9 ft high porch above it. I have become quite good at setting up, taking down, and using scaffolding over the past few weeks. It can get really tricky trying to get the ladders out of the way of your work and getting the ladder jacks set up evenly so your plank isn't wobbly, but it does keep you on your toes. It can be quite terrifying when you first walk out onto the plank and know that one misstep and you could fall 20 feet straight down onto the ground. But as I've been told numerous times, its not the fall you need to be concerned about, its the landing.

Me, Jess, and Heather before I almost fell to my death.

There have been numerous times that I have been on the scaffolding and lost my balance for a second and scared myself a little, but never honestly came close to falling. Until yesterday. I legitimately saw my life flash before my eyes yesterday. I was standing on the edge of a piece of scaffold trying to get up a rather difficult piece of Soffit which also happened to be the last piece we were putting up for the day. Jess (Kate's sister who came to visit with her best friend Heather) was up on the scaffolding with me and was standing in the middle handing me pieces. (The picture I put in may help you picture this story a little better. I was standing on the very end of the scaffold towards the left of this photo.) We finished getting up the Soffit and then Tony came up on the ladder to check out what our next step would be and decided to call it a day. Jess decided to step off the scaffold and onto the porch rail which was in front of us rather than climbing down the ladder 20 ft or so. When she said she was going to step off the scaffold, I didn't even think anything about it, until I felt the scaffold falling beneath me. Simple physics had taken over. Without Jess in the middle, the edge of scaffold that was extended several feet by the jacks started working like a seesaw and went down towards the ground. Only problem was the ground was at least 20 feet below me. Luckily, Jess immediately realized what was happening and stepped back on the scaffold and I grabbed onto the ladder and was no worse for the wear except for the fact that I think I lost a good 5 years off my life.

Just another day at the work site.

One Last Hurrah

2010-11-07T22:13:00.000-05:00

I don't think I've ever been so excited about the prospect of a weekend of absolute nothing-ness. This past weekend marked the 7th one in a row that I have had something going on (you can read the details of all these lovely weekends in my previous posts, if you haven't already).

However, I must say I couldn't have thought of a better way to end the busyness but with this latest adventure - a trip to St. Louis to play trampoline dodgeball for a fellow camp counselor Kristen's birthday party.

I don't think there is any way to really describe trampoline dodgeball accurately. What I had imagined in my mind prior to actually experiencing it was pretty far removed from the actual event. If you want to see what it looks like when professionals play, you can check out this video: The professionals. Our version involved a lot less flipping and cheesy music, but was played on the same type of court and was equally AMAZING.

We had the court for an hour and it flew by. I really think I could've jumped for at least another two hours. It definitely took some adjusting to as I learned after I fell directly following my first jump. But once you got the hang of jumping between the squares and established some sense of balance, it became a lot easier to avoid many more embarrassing spills. I even got up the nerve to do a couple flips by the end of the hour.

Our Dodgeball Crew

In addition to playing trampoline dodgeball, we were also able to visit the St. Louis Zoo which was highly entertaining and even more exciting it was FREE. I can honestly say I don't remember the last time I went to the zoo, but the St. Louis Zoo did not disappoint. And when one of your fellow zoo-goers happens to be a Zoology teacher it makes for a much more educational experience. Including her pointing out this sign entitled 'What's So Special About a Hippo's Hiney?' which detailed how hippos help feed the fish with, well, I guess the picture can explain for me.

Please note the word bubble in the bottom right hand corner.

As much fun as the past month and a half has been, I am so glad that it is over and I can now look forward to some down time until Thanksgiving when the craziness begins all over again.

Halloweekend Festivities

2010-11-02T21:58:00.001-04:00

Another ridiculously busy weekend has passed us by in the Floyd House:Halloween Weekend AKA Halloweekend.The highlight of the weekend was that Kate and I finally were able to reveal our costume on Saturday at the Halloween party. We have been planning this costume since the first week we met each other back in August so there was a lot of pressure to perform.

*Insert Drum Roll Please*

We dressed up as our crew leader, Tony, and his wife, Liz!

Tony, Kate as Tony, Liz, Me as Liz

The costume was a huge hit with everybody at the party and a lot of people kept confusing the look-a-like Tony for the real Tony. I wish I had a picture of Tony's reaction when he walked into the party. He was completely dumbfounded - it was great! I can imagine it would be odd to walk into a party and see an exact copy of yourself waiting to greet you. The night was even made better by the fact, that Kate and I had a clean sweep of the contests that night. She won 'Best Costume' and I ended up winning the pumpkin carving contest with my creation to the right.

In recognition of Halloween, I'd thought I'd also share a little story about an encounter I had with some wildlife last week at work. I was working underneath the porch of the house tacking up a wire with these little plastic clips to keep it from interfering with the Tyvek paper we were wrapping the house with. For this story to make sense, I have to explain the space where I was working. The front porch on this house is 9 feet high so the space underneath it is quite spacious and is actually mostly a concrete slab that butts up against the basement of their house. While you are standing underneath it you can see all the boards from the deck above and the joists that are holding it together. So I am standing on my ladder tacking up this wire and just moving right along with hardly any problems. I notice in a gap between some boards (that are maybe 6 inches from my face) a piece of what looks like fuzz which I account to the fact that this house was previously insulated with old newspapers and pieces of cloth. However, upon closer inspection, I realize it is NOT a piece of fuzz, but rather some sort of dead animal - a mouse to be exact. Its hanging upside down and all that is sticking out is its head. I can see its eyes which are closed and its face, but that's it. I called up to Tony and Kate, who were installing a door on the porch, and informed them of my discovery, but assured them I was fine. I decided to lean in for a closer look and when I was about two inches away, all of a sudden its' eyes popped open and it looked directly at me. I let out the loudest, girliest scream and jumped down from the ladder as quickly as I could.

Not only was it NOT a piece of fuzz, it was an animal, and NOT a dead one, but a LIVE one, and NOT a mouse, but a bat.

The bat's face
(My exact view when it opened its eyes)

The bat's butt
(View from on top of the porch)

Needless to say, Tony and Kate came down to check on me (really just make fun of me for being a baby) and after we all stared at it for a while and took some photos we were back to work none the worse for the wear.

Except for the fact that I am still trying to live this moment down.

Not So Broken #2

2010-11-02T20:50:00.000-04:00

Some more photos off my camera to hold you over until my next blog post which is currently in the works. Hopefully, I'll get it posted soon. Maybe even tonight depending on my motivation level and how tired I become in the next hour or so.

Not So Broken #1

2010-10-27T22:11:00.000-04:00

I got a new digital camera for Christmas from my parents. It wasn't anything intense, just a practical camera for taking photos of friends, family, and the like. It unfortunately met an untimely death when I brought it with me in March to Kentucky for Workfest - CAP's Alternative Spring Break for college students. One second it was fine and the next second I took it out of my nail pouch and the LCD screen was broken. Completely destroyed.Because my camera isn't of the highest quality, it doesn't have a viewfinder so that I could at least guess-timate what I was taking pictures of and therefore it was down for the count. (Yes, I know the nail pouch was not the ideal spot to be keeping it, but when you're balancing on a rotted tin roof your options for putting down your camera are quite limited.)

Unfortunately, my camera did not have a warranty protecting it from user stupidity so I have been out a camera since then. When I came to CAP, I realized that this was going to be a bit of a problem since I would have no way of documenting my adventures and I had no extra money to fix my camera or buy a new one. Therefore, I decided to start aiming my camera in the general direction of what I was trying to capture and hoping for the best.

There is definitely a learning curve with taking pictures this way. In general, it is best to take multiple shots of whatever you're trying to capture because some may not come out focused or the subject may not be centered in your photo. However, as far as a broken camera goes, the pictures have not been that bad at all.

I've decided to start posting some of best of the photos unedited in any way. Just as they come out on my camera when I push the shutter and hope for the best. I'm including three of the ones I've taken thus far in this post, but in the future I'll try and post them as I take them.

So here goes - Not So Broken: Edition 1.

Time Flies By So Fast

2010-10-24T20:28:00.002-04:00

I have recently come to the realization that I have more of a busy social calendar since I moved to Eastern Kentucky than when I lived in the Northeast. I don't know if that is an indication of the lack of a social life I had back home or if it speaks to the amount of adventures and activities we try to fit into our lives down here. If the past month has been any indication, I may be leaning more towards the latter.

In the month of October, our house has had some sort of activity planned every weekend whether it was a house event or a CAP wide event, we have been going non-stop and it is starting to get exhausting and we're not done yet. Here is a rundown of my most recent weekend adventures.

#1 - APPLE DAYS

On the first Saturday of October, a group of us from the house went to Apple Days in Paintsville which is a huge festival all about, you guessed it, apples! The theme of the 47th annual Apple Days was 'A Slice of Heaven' and although I wouldn't go quite that far there was some interesting things to be seen. The main attraction was the parade which we went to go see. It was the slowest moving parade I have ever witnessed in my life; at times, it was legitimately at a stand still for five minutes or more. Not moving at all. Just sitting. And that happened a lot more than once if you can believe it. At one point, Kate and I left to go buy some popcorn and came back about ten to fifteen minutes later and we had missed maybe one car. The best part of the parade though was definitely the Shriners. They were all dressed up as hillbillies and were driving around in ridiculous cars with signs that said 'Hillbillies Helping Crippled Children'. I wish I had a picture to show you, but just use your imagination and I'm sure it will come close to the actual thing.

#2 - CAP PICNIC/WEEKEND AT THE WEIDERMAN'S

Kevin, Chris, Caitlin, Jordan, Me, Kate

This weekend was especially long as it began on Thursday with the CAP-wide company picnic in Lexington. There were a bunch of different activities going on as well as delicious food and opportunity to see volunteers from all over CAP. Some of the highlights of the day were a cornhole tournament, a 5k run/walk, bingo, and a volleyball tournament. The day was even made more amazing by the fact that my team dominated the volleyball tournament and were rewarded with a lovely trophy which I currently have proudly displayed in my room.

Kate, Maggie, Me, Rachel

One of my housemates, Rachel, is actually from Kentucky and lives less than an hour away from Lexington and she invited us to come stay at her parent's home for the weekend. So directly following the picnic we headed to the Weiderman's house in Danville. Momma and Poppa Weiderman spoiled us the entire time we were there with crazy amounts of delicious home cooked food and wonderful company. It was like we were staying at the most amazing bed and breakfast except it was affordable for a CAP volunteer. While we were in western Kentucky, we also decided to try and visit some places on the Bourbon Trail (http://www.kybourbontrail.com/). We were able to visit three of the six distilleries on the trail including: Wild Turkey, Four Roses, and Woodford Reserve. Each of the distilleries offered a little bit of a different tour, but of the three we visited I would have to say my favorite was Four Roses so far. They had a swing made from a bourbon barrel out front which was amazing and provided a great place for a little family photo (minus quite a few members).

#3 - SPLENDIFEROUS FALL EXTRAVAGANZA

There are a total of three volunteer houses on the East side of CAP - Floyd (where I live), Johnson, and Magoffin. Even though we all are working for CAP, we don't all get to see each other that often because of our varied programs, schedules, and the distances between our houses. The Johnson house decided to hold a fall festival AKA the Splendiferous Fall Extravaganza in order to allow all the houses to get together and fellowship. And with a name like that, you can imagine the expectations that were being set for this event. The Johnson House did not disappoint. There was a bonfire with great food - steak, pork chops, chicken, potatoes, and biscuits - and wonderful music. I was conned into helping roast the apples on the bonfire which I originally agreed to thinking that it was going to be fun and a pretty easy job. I mean, all you have to do is turn the foil-wrapped apples every once in while with tongs, right? FALSE. It actually involves running around a very hot fire with a pair of tongs trying to turn apples before they burn or are crushed by falling logs with sweat forming on your brow and tears streaming down your face because your eyes can't handle the intense heat for such an extended period of time. But it was all worth it when the apples were sliced up and served with vanilla ice cream, homemade caramel, and crumb topping.

#4 - VOLUNTEER RETREAT

This past weekend we all spent up at Camp Shawnee at the Fall CAP Volunteer Retreat. Its a time for all the volunteers from both the east and west sides of CAP to come together and fellowship and

#5 - HALLOWEEN

This weekend activity has yet to actually occur, but just as a preview of my next weekend I thought I would include it here. Next weekend, I will be attending a Halloween party hosted by an independent living volunteer. Kate and I have been planning our costume since we first met in August and we have kept it a huge secret so unfortunately you all will have to wait till next weekend to know what it is, but rest assured it will be amazing. And don't worry there will be photos.

You Know You Live in Eastern Kentucky when....

2010-10-13T21:57:00.000-04:00

...you have witnessed the following list of things in under ten minutes.

A man riding his ATV on the main road as if its a car.
A shirtless man aimlessly wandering in the middle of an intersection blocking traffic.
A tractor driving on the road holding up traffic on the main road as if it also is a car.
A group of random people directing traffic on a main road around a car accident (legitimately, waving people through and holding others up).
You have been warned of said accident by a huge coal truck flashing its lights at you.
A huge cloud of thick, black smoke coming out from behind some one's house where they are burning a large pile of garbage (which goodness knows what that contains).

That was my life yesterday and basically every day that I have spent here to some degree.

How could I not love it here?

A Lesson in Patience and the Like

2010-10-12T23:38:00.001-04:00

The title of this post really only has to do with one small part of my life as of late, but I couldn't think of a better title so it remains 'A Lesson in Patience and the Like'. But I guess it is appropriate, as I'm sure you all have been patiently waiting on me to get my act together and finally update you all on my most recent adventures and for that I do apologize. Although excuses are generally lame and insufficient, I will try and explain the details of my ridiculously busy life as a way of explaining away my lack of communication.

The day after my last post I left for Maryland to go to my cousin Shane's wedding. Although I spent most of Friday and Saturday in the car alternately driving to and from the wedding, the trip was well worth it as I was able to see my lovely family whom I have missed dearly. I don't think I realized how much I missed them until I was face to face with them again on Friday night. Even though I only got to see everyone for a very short amount of time, it was a nice refresher to help me survive until I get to see everyone at Christmas.

Immediately upon arriving back at the house, I had to head up to Orientation for a full week. I know you may be thinking 'But Bethanie haven't you been in Kentucky for a while now?'. Well, CAP runs an Orientation every few months and I missed the last one by two weeks so I found myself heading up to be oriented just about two months after I arrived here. It was a very long week of lengthy meetings and group discussions and seminars with the final crowning moment of the week being a group of us reading the Volunteer Handbook from cover to cover out loud. Fascinating, I know. I would be remiss however in leaving out the wonderful moments I had with my fellow volunteers in between the sessions. I got to see some of my friends that live on the other side of the state who I don't get to see very often due to the distance between our volunteer houses. And I was able to form even closer bonds with some of my roommates that I don't work with everyday.

And all of that brings you up to date to last week in which I spent a good portion of my time exploring a new hobby - building mini corn hole. I had never heard of corn hole until I came to Kentucky, but for all you North East people its a game that involves two boards that you set about 20 feet from each other. The object of the game is to throw bags into the hole in the board or on top of the board. You score 3 points for getting it in the hole and 1 for on top. (You can find more specific and complete rules at http://www.playcornhole.org/rules.shtml). I decided to try and replicate a tabletop rendition of this game that I had seen being sold at a festival we went to. I made a set for Kate because her birthday was today and I must say I am pretty proud of how they turned out. Maybe I'll start selling them to supplement my $75 bi-weekly stipend.

And now last but definitely not least, the reason behind this blog's title. I have completed another task off my 101 list - #34: Build a piece of furniture. I learned over the past four or five weekends how NOT to build a picnic table and in the process ended up with what you see below - 10 feet of beautiful treated 2x6 lumber in the shape of a table.

The issues we (Kate and I) encountered on this adventure were endless and would take far too long to recount to all of you, but I feel I should at least give you the highlights. But before I give you that, I must share a disclaimer for at least part of our struggles. The plans we were given were written up for us by a former CAP volunteer. Unfortunately for us, his hand writing is less than desirable leaving a little too much up to our interpretation.

So with that in mind, here are the best of our worst moments.

Mishap #1: we cut a 45 degree angle on the table legs instead of a 15 degree angle which resulted in our table being suitable for extremely vertically challenged people.
Mishap #2: we used the wrong type of bolts/screws to put together the legs of the picnic table which meant we had to remove them all and replace them which meant re-drilling all 16 holes.
Mishap #3: we had re cut the legs of our tables with the correct angle but when we set our bench we realized our table was now only comfortable for people with very long torsos. For people of normal height/build, your feet were on the floor and the table top was just under your chin.
Mishap #4: in order to make our table comfortable for average people we had to shave some inches off the top of our table which meant re-drilling half the holes (again).
Mishap #5: we set the benches so that there was only a 12 inch overhang on each side, but then we realized most people need a little more cheek room than that so we had to take apart the entire bench in order to make it a roomier 18 inches.

Well, I think that about sums up our most thrilling moments with the table, and now you probably understand what I meant about a lesson in patience. Every time I look at the table now, I am alternately proud and enraged. Its the most intense love/hate relationship I've ever had with someone/thing. But it is another thing done off the list and for that I am happy.

Holding Our Heads High

2010-09-22T18:20:00.000-04:00

"I can go out on my front porch look at the cars passing by and hold my head up high now."

This exact quote was said to my crew leader last week after we fixed an elderly participant's water pump which in turn allowed him to have running water in his house for the first time since June. Up until that point, Wade had been collecting rain water in buckets around his house and using that for all his water needs except for drinking water.

The reason I'm mentioning this story is because remembering these kinds of moments are what help me get through the tougher days here in Kentucky. This week in particular has been really difficult for me. We have been tying up loose ends on several homes since I got here and so the work right now is minimal as we are transitioning into a new project. Monday and Tuesday we spent between 3 houses including Sue's (the one with the trampoline), Wade's, and Cheryl's (the first house I worked on when I got here).

Today, we went to go look at the new project we will be starting soon. Its in Knott County - about 45 minutes to an hour away from the office - quite a drive to say the least. This project is going to be quite extensive - including putting up siding/underpinning/soffit/fascia on the whole house, painting the entire interior, replacing all the windows, and redoing the kitchen - including new cabinets. Today was the first day we had seen the house and we spent the day taking measurements and doing all the preliminary work so that we could order the necessary materials.

The past three days have just dragged for me. Its hard when the projects are down to the end and the work to be done is only enough for one or two people; it makes the day seem much longer than normal. I would much rather be running around and sweating and busy any day. I don't know why but these days have made me more tired than the week I spent mucking out houses during Disaster Relief. I think the worst part of it is that I feel like we're not accomplishing anything right now; like we are just stuck in this strange in between time.

But then today I was thinking back on the jobs we've completed and I remembered how grateful the people were that we were able to help.

People like Wade who now has running water and a washing machine.

People like Sue who told us that when she looked at her house now she was proud of it rather than embarrassed.

Those moments are the reason I am here and why this in between time is okay. Because without it we would never get to the point with our participants where they can say they're genuinely proud of their home.

And so regardless of little it seems like we accomplished this week, I am going to hold my head up high because I know in the end it will all be worth it.

Twenty-Two

2010-09-19T16:29:00.001-04:00

I have officially celebrated my CAP birthday.

That is the one birthday I will have during my year of service. I remember when I was talking with one of my friends who was also doing a year of service and she was discussing the implications of a year away from your home. A year encompasses a lot: a birthday, a Christmas, a Thanksgiving, a Fourth of July, and so on and so forth. You get my point. All those annual events that you are used to celebrating with your family the same way every year are going to be experienced in a different way.

One of the best parts of my birthday was a string of picture messages that I received from my Mom throughout the day. It started about 11am and continued throughout the day until almost 10pm at night. To mark my 22nd birthday, she sent me 22 pictures of things that related to/had the number 22 in them. It was simply amazing, especially this photo of my Meme.

The rest of my week (although it was hard to top the high standard set by my Mom) was also really great. We had a volunteer group come in from Significant Living which is an organization for people of ages 50 and older who are dedicated to service work. This particular group was a little bit older in fact one of the ladies I worked with was 79 years old. I only hope that when I am that age that I am willing and able to still be participating in service trips. Together with our group, we were able to finish up the laundry room that we had started last week and to complete another job that was on our To Do List. Both of the jobs consisted mainly of painting and finish work which was good for our group because it was enough to keep everyone busy all week.

The second house we worked on belonged to an older man who lives in a house which he built by himself from scrap pieces of wood and discounted supplies. He lives at the end of a holler by himself as his wife passed away several years ago. She is buried right near the end of his driveway about two feet away from his mailbox and he walks up there occasionally to put flowers out. Wade is quite the character to say the least. He doesn't get many visitors at his home so when six people show up at his home it just makes his day. He especially loved the fact that he could flirt with five ladies for two days straight. His house was originally an Elderly Housing Project, but just needed some last things done on it to finish up the job. We were able to spend two days there and finish everything that was left to do including painting his entire house - walls and ceilings. Right before we left on Thursday, the Significant Living group and Wade took a picture together which he would only agree to if he had a lady on each arm. As you can see, they obliged him.

All in all, a pretty solid birthday week.

Check It Off the List

2010-09-14T23:55:00.000-04:00

That's right. Number 52 is done.

I had a breakthrough yesterday at work after I switched my front foot entering into my cartwheel. Apparently, being right handed does not mean you are 'right-footed' for cartwheeling. On the contrary, I put my left foot first and was suddenly able to do what you see above. And I continued to do it about fifteen times in a row just to prove it wasn't a fluke.

I'd say that it was a pretty darn good birthday present.

Jack-of-All-Trades

2010-09-09T22:49:00.006-04:00

I have determined that this is what I'm going to become by the end of my time in Kentucky - a jack of all trades. Not only will I know a little bit of a ton of different types of construction and home repair projects, I have been adding some other skills to my repertoire.

Some might call them resume-builders.

Lumberjack

I spent about two and a half hours last Friday up at Camp Shawnee by myself working on what may become a weekend ritual of sorts. As discussed in my last post, I recently became certified to operate a chainsaw. This training took place up at Camp Shawnee and the remains of this event includes an enormous pile of un-split logs of various widths from all the trees that were cut down. I decided that one good way to spend my day off would be to split some firewood for next year's summer camp. So I borrowed an axe and a splitter from Tony - my housing crew leader- and headed up to Camp to further advance my lumberjack skills. It took a little time to get into the swing of things, but I managed to leave this evidence of my lumberjack prowess behind. (Amazingly, I did this without any injury to myself.)

Trampoliner-Extaordinaire

Or at least I'm striving for this title. The house that we are currently working on belongs to a lovely woman named Sue. She has a granddaughter that comes to visit frequently and therefore there are several toys available for Kate and I to entertain ourselves with. Among these is an amazing trampoline which has become a staple of our work day. Every day after lunch Kate and I have 'Trampoline Time' in which we jump around like 5 year olds while Tony just shakes his head at us in disbelief. At first, it was solely used for jumping purposes which surprisingly is quite entertaining for being so simple. Then Kate took to double bouncing me when I wasn't paying attention which for some reason always seems to send me flying. Thank goodness the trampoline is surrounded by netting or I am 100% that I would have broken at least one bone by now.

As fun as jumping and getting flung into the netting is, it soon became apparent that it was time to step it up a notch. And that is how I started doing flips on the trampoline. At first, they were just little somersaults, but now that I've been doing them for a couple weeks I have upgraded to the ones shown in this picture. Today, I decided that I would try and land on my feet rather than on my butt like I have been doing. However after alternately: 1)under-rotating and landing on my back, 2)over-rotating and landing on my face, 3) landing on my feet only to have my knees give out and then come up and hit me in the chest/stomach consequently knocking the wind out of myself (3 times), 4) propelling myself face-first into the netting - I think I may need to work on that trick for a bit longer.

Cartwheeler

This particular life-skill has more to do with my 101 list than the fact that I am in Kentucky. #52: Learn how to do a cartwheel. I have never in my life been able to do one. I don't know if it was a lack of opportunity, inability on my part, or just some part of childhood I missed out on, regardless, I've never done one in my life. I figured its one of those things that everyone has done at some point in their life so now at the age of 21 (almost 22) I am learning how to do one. Inspired by 'Trampoline Time', I decided to tackle this task while at the work site. Learning to cartwheel is an interesting experience; more embarrassing than painful but definitely a combination of the two. Needless to say that one is a work in progress.

Leprechaun Charmer

If you have not yet seen the YouTube video about the Mobile, Alabama leprechaun, this one may not make any sense, but it will after you click the above link (just click where it says Youtube) and watch the video. If you have seen the video, than you know about the magical leprechaun 'flute' that one gentleman proudly displays claiming it was passed down from his "great-great grandfather". Oddly, his flute closely resembles, to the point of being identical, a scaffolding pin which we have an abundance of at our workshop. Tony found Kate and I our very own leprechaun flute which we hope to have the opportunity to use in the near future so we can get some gold. We want da gold!

Laundry-Room-Putter-Together

After reading the above posts, you may be thinking that I don't actually do any work during my work day. I will admit that it is hard between trampoline-jumping, being a gymnast, and charming leprechauns to do any of my actual job, but somehow we manage to fit in quite a bit of housing work in between all the ridiculousness. This week I worked with Andrew - another long term volunteer - to finish a laundry room at our participants house. When we got there, there was only one coat of mud on the drywall and the floor still needed to be put down and the ceiling needed drywall put up. I got to learn all about drywall over the past 4 days - from holding it above your head while trying to screw it into the joists to mudding over the rough spots multiple times to sanding down the dried mud and consequently inhaling large quantities of dust. We also laid down laminate flooring, put in a new light fixture, and did all the trim Although, I may now have a pound of drywall dust residing in my lungs, we did manage to just about completely finish the room except for some last finishing touches which we will do next week and then close the book on this house.

I don't know that my resume is prepared for all of this.